Of Valentines Yet to Come
by OneHorseShay
Summary: Valentine's Day has rolled around again and Freddie doesn't have a clue what to get Jade to show his love for her. Fortunately, he has some help with a being associated with the holiday and he can always count on help from his family… even if they haven't been born yet. Jade West/Freddie Benson. Set after 'Who are My Brothers'
1. Chapter 1

Hello my dear readers! It's good to be posting. I've been kind of in a writing slump over the last month and a half, but I'm getting back into the swing of things. I hope you enjoy this story in celebration of the holiday of romantic love. I hope to start getting some of my other stories updated in the coming weeks.

I'm shooting for a three chapter story and finish posting by Valentine's Day. This story takes place after 'Who are My Brothers?' without really any spoilers to that story.

Also, Happy Birthday to Abraham Lincoln.

* * *

Of Valentines Yet to Come  
By OneHorseShay

Disclaimer: Don't Own, Don't Sue. For God sakes, don't sue.  
Paring: Jade West/Freddie Benson  
Rating: T Language/Adult Content  
Summary: Valentine's Day has rolled around again and Freddie doesn't have a clue what to get Jade to show his love for her. Fortunately, he has some help with a being associated with the holiday and he can always count on help from his family… even if they haven't been born yet.

Chapter 1

Green Meadow Mall  
Los Angeles, CA  
Thursday, February 12, 2015

Freddie Benson's face looked worn as he stood in the middle of the mall and glanced over the various stores decorated with the various colors of red, pink and white for the rapidly approaching holiday for lovers of all forms. Despite it being a Thursday afternoon, there were plenty of shoppers going about to the various stores to find a gift for that special someone in their life—the men of course spending far more than the women would spend on the holiday, but that was just a little statistic that the news would report on later that no one cared about.

The college junior of course was among the crowd with the same intention of finding a gift for his beautiful fiancée, Jade West, but he faced the unexpected dilemma of not having a clue in what to get her for the holiday. He hoped browsing around the mall would inspire him or perhaps he could run across something that would practically 'yell' out at him that Jade would love.

He casually walked around the front of each of the store fronts, eyeing the various displays and sales screaming that they had the perfect gift for one's lover. However, everything just seemed so hollow to him with it being a forced emotion.

He made his way past the jewelry store and thought that jewelry was always a good token of his affection and the expected fallback gift in these circumstances. The idea of having to get something as a fallback gift mildly irritated him in that it seemed to be a chore to find Jade a gift instead of something that she would love and let him see that lovely smile when he gave it to her.

The former Seattleite walked into the jewelry store and started casually browsing with the other patrons, feeling kind of lost in his search. He stopped in front of one counter looking at various rings. Jade liked her rings, but about two and a half years after giving her an engagement ring, it didn't seem as meaningful to give her them. They would all pale in comparison to the ring on her left ring finger.

"Finding anything you like sir?" an eerily familiar voice called out in front of him on the other side of the counter.

He looked to see a young man that bared a strikingly similar appearance and build to himself with his hair neatly parted and combed down with a five o'clock shadow on his face and wearing a sharp black suit and tie. He wasn't an exact doppelganger as the one he had met before during a layover of one of Jade's tours. He was some prince in some small country that he would have trouble finding on a map if it wasn't for the internet.

"Is there a problem sir?" the young sales clerk asked in a similar voice to Freddie.

"No, it's just… you just look familiar."

The similar looking young man grinned and answered in a carefree manner, "Oh, I've been told that I look like the gentleman dating that famous musician, Jade West."

Freddie held back a smirk and answered after taking an expected moment to examine his features. "Yeah, I can see the resemblance."

The salesman casually remarked back, "You look like you could be mistaken for him too sir."

The former tech-producer laughed off, hoping to deflect the recognition, "I've had the comparison made about me a time or two."

The resembling sales clerk politely laughed then asked, "Is there anything I can help you with sir?"

Freddie politely smiled. "I'm still browsing. I'm trying to find the perfect gift for my fiancée."

"Ah, do you have something particular in mind?"

"Not really. I'm still trying to figure out what that gift could be and I thought perhaps she would like some jewelry."

"It sounds like you're just falling back on that."

Freddie regretfully grinned, not expecting to verbally hear his own nagging thoughts and answered in a tired voice, "I kind of am. We've shared so many birthdays, Christmases and other Valentine's Days that I think I'm running out of gift ideas for her that I know she would love."

The young man casually remarked, "They say you can never really go wrong with jewelry, flowers and candy, but perhaps you're looking at your gift shopping in the wrong direction?"

Freddie's brow knotted up quickly, not expecting such an answer, "What do you mean?"

"You're shopping because it's Valentine's Day, but why are you getting her a gift for it?"

Freddie slightly turned his head to the side and studied the fellow young man. He slowly answered, "Because it's Valentine's Day and you give a gift for the person you're with."

"So you're doing it because the commercialized holiday, not because you genuinely want to give her a gift?"

The college student felt mildly offended with the question, but not too much since the salesman simply put to words the nagging feeling he had felt for the last couple of days as the day approached. "You're a salesman and you're complaining about commercialism?"

"I like to think I'm just pointing out that you're just conforming to the holiday instead of wanting to express your love for this woman on your terms. The gift should reflect your intangible feelings, a physical gesture that symbolizes your love to her. You figure out what you want to tell her then go looking for the gift that will convey those feelings."

"I've already done that with jewelry with the engagement ring. What more can I do than tell her that I want to spend the rest of my life with her?"

The sales clerk gently laughed, "Then could I interest you in some wedding bands?"

Freddie let out a tension relieving laugh then answered with a small grin still on his face, "Not today."

"Then perhaps you should be looking elsewhere to find something that expresses your love for this woman in your life with a smaller gesture? Something to let her know that your love for her hasn't waned since your engagement until your wedding?"

Freddie thought the sharply dressed sales clerk had a very insightful. The point really was to show that he loved her and thought about her. "She knows every day that I love her. She has no doubt about that."

"Perhaps you shouldn't get her anything at all and tell her that: you don't want anything to do with the holiday other letting her know how much you love her and what she means to you."

He cocked his head to the side and asked half-jokingly, "Do you realize that you're trying to talk me out of a sale and trying to talk me into the dog house?"

"Maybe, but… this is actually my favorite time of year and I just root for genuine love. I believe that is more important than any commission I could make on a sale."

Freddie smirked and softly snorted out, "So you're a hopeless romantic?"

The young man with the very similar face knowingly smiled as if he had a deeper understanding to the situation than perhaps even Freddie. "Hopeless? Never. It's people like you and Jade that have overcome everything that's been thrown at you that proves that love is never hopeless."

The former tech-producer gave the sales clerk a curious expression, but was interrupted by having any deeper thoughts with a song starting playing from his pocket, one of Jade's recent hits from her second album used as a ring tone signaling that she was calling him.

The similar appearing young man grinned and suggested, "Perhaps you could ask whoever is calling for a suggestion?"

Freddie threw a half-hearted smile and brought the rectangular phone to his ear and answered, "Hey."

Jade happily questioned, _"What'cha doing? You're out of class right?"_

"Yeah I am. I'm ah… Valentine's Day shopping," he decided to admit.

Jade teased, _"Oh, picking me out something nice?"_

He looked to the sales clerk with a bit of mortification. "Yeah, just… getting you the perfect gift, but it's a surprise. It wasn't easy to fine."

"_I know I'll love it, but I kind of have a surprise for you and that's why I'm calling. Could you meet me right now though?"_

"Yeah, sure. I can wrap up the rest of shopping later. Where do you want to meet?"

"_Let me text you the address."_

He raised a curious eyebrow, clearly wondering why she was sending an address instead of just telling him the location. "Okay." He heard the ping of receiving the text message then continued, "Okay, I got it. I'll be right there."

"_I'll see you soon. Love you."_

"I love you too."

The call ended and Freddie slipped the phone back into his pocket.

The salesman smiled and needlessly questioned, "I take it that was your sweetheart?"

"Yeah, she wants me to meet up with her right now."

"You look like it's a bit of a surprise."

He hesitated in answer, but he didn't see any harm in being vague, "Oh, it was just unexpected. She said she would be busy this afternoon, but it looks like plans have changed."

"Well good luck sir in finding that gift."

Freddie grinned and genuinely thanked, "Thank you… Mister…"

"Nathanael, the name's Nathanael."

"Thank you Nathanael," Freddie returned with a smile and nod of his head. He turned and headed out of the jewelry shop with a mixture of curiosity and doubt, mild hopefulness that he would figure something out for Jade.

Beverly Park  
Los Angeles, CA

The black '69 Charger pulled up to the security gate of the gated community where a number of high profile stars lived. He rolled down his window to speak with one of the security guards and introduced himself, "Hello. I'm Freddie Benson—"

The security guard pressed a button and politely waved him inside as the gate parted for him without a second thought.

Freddie looked at the security guard for a few seconds, wondering why he was just being allowed through, but let it go as he started his drive into the exclusive community.

The classic muscle car leisurely drove down the road as Freddie looked out for the house Jade mentioned in her text among the high end homes built really for the rich and famous. Though the smart phone was telling him the exact location of the house, the most reliable instrument could still be the Mark 1 Eyeball.

As he drove down the street, he did a double take in seeing Shawn Combs walking down the side of the street walking his dog.

"Nice wheels!" the rapper shouted with a wave as he spotted the car.

Freddie politely waved back, mildly stunned and continued on his way until he spotted Jade's black Mercedes-Benz before the phone could tell him that the house was to his right: _'You have arrived at One-Three-Nine-Eight-One Aubrey Road, Beverly Hills'_. He pulled the Charger into the driveway next to the luxury vehicle in front of the garage that was at least one level below the main level of the home with a singular and double door then stepped out of his car once he parked it.

He glanced around to the clearly multimillion dollar homes and was a little in awe of them. He had accompanied Jade to a number of celebrities' homes for after award parties and been impressed with them, but there were still times he was in awe of them. The homes were well separated with plenty of trees and other high greens that reached at least a dozen feet and more up in the air, so privacy was maintained. He looked back to the home that he and Jade's vehicles were parked and it looked just as impressive with its Normandy design scheme.

The college student jotted up the half spiral white brick staircase up to the front door and knocked. A few seconds later a lovely blonde woman in her mid-thirties wearing a female blazer jacket and mid-thigh skirt opened the door. She graciously smiled at him, apparently recognizing him.

Freddie cautiously asked, "Hello, I'm looking for Jade West?"

"She's right inside. You're Mister Benson I take it?"

"Yes."

"Come in," she offered with a motion of her hand.

He accepted the invitation, still curious about why he was here, and looked around the expansive home.

Standing off to the side in the foyer was Jade's chafer and bodyguard, a tall and muscular fellow that was a former US Army Sergeant with a very clandestine service record then a military security contractor. The rise to fame came with it the increase need for security for the starlet to the point that now that every time she went out, she had a shadow. It was an inconvenient development where she couldn't go out on a spare of the moment unless she was with Freddie.

The bodyguard politely nodded and greeted him, "Mister Benson."

"Charles."

The dark brunette noticed her love and eagerly strolled to him then looped her arm around his arm and gave him a kiss on the cheek. She turned to look at the house and asked with a smile almost big enough to break her face, "What do you think?"

"It's big and nice," he cracked a boyish grin as he continued to take in the splendor of the home with the white tile floor and a view all the way to the back of the home that seemed to stretch on forever. If he wasn't mistaken, he could see through the windows of the door to a pool.

"But do you _like_ it?"

"I guess I would have to take a tour before I could give you a fair opinion, but why? Why did you want to me to meet you here?"

Jade looked practically gleeful and that was a rare face even for the one time queen mean girl at Hollywood Arts that had 'mellowed' over the last few years. She licked her gloss covered lip and answered with hope lacing her voice, "I was hoping to buy it."

Freddie's jaw nearly dropped as he uttered, "What?"

She leaned closer to whisper into his ear, "I want to buy it. I want this to be our home… I want to spend the rest of our lives here and raise our children here."

"Wow," he answered, still looking astonished by her revelation.

Jade knew she was dropping a bombshell on him since they hadn't discussed getting a place on their own other than in the abstract. She did feel a little guilty on just ambushing him this way, but as she had just stated, she wanted the house. While Freddie was still processing why Jade asked him to meet her here, Jade looked to the realtor and suggested with her charming smile, "Would you mind giving a second tour for us?"

The lovely, and quite eager, realtor smiled and began to go through a second tour without a second thought since the musical star was simply that, had the money and was quite interested in purchasing the house.

They were led through the five bedrooms, six and a half bath home with the realtor taking great pleasure in pointing out the large and formal foyer he had entered, a living room with a ceiling that looked like it went up for forever, several fireplaces, a family room with glass doors to the backyard that led to the pool and patio, and a kitchen for a professional chef. The features Freddie particularly liked were the gym connected to the master bedroom and balcony to the room. Jade mentioned how she liked the yoga room off to the kitchen. The security cameras and the elevator were nice added touches.

After about twenty minutes, the realtor led them back to the foyer and pleasantly offered the couple, "I'll give you two a chance to talk." She parted from them to walk to the kitchen and immediately got onto her phone.

Jade confidently asked with a smirk, "So, what do you think about it now?"

Freddie looked to his future wife and humbly stated, "I like it. It's nice… really nice."

The musician raised her eyebrow, mildly concern that he could be placating her, "Is that it?"

He sighed out, "It's just… are you sure?"

"Sure?"

"Yeah, that this is the one you want? That we're ready to buy a house? We haven't talked at all about getting a house."

She glanced down to the white tile floor and muttered, "I didn't think of that."

He asked in concern, trying to understand her reasoning in a gentle way as he obviously busted her bubble, "Then why all of the sudden did you go house shopping and ready to drop almost eight million dollars?"

"I have the money—"

He waved her off while answering, "I'm not worried about the money. It's your money to spend and the money mangers will—"

"It's _our_ money."

He gently rested his hands on her shoulders and sweetly smiled to her. "Jade, it's _your_ money that you earned through sweat and tears, hours upon hours in the studio and practices and our months apart at times. It's your money."

She reached up and rested a hand over his left one and countered, "But I wouldn't have been able to have done any of that without you and we're… you know. Yours will be mine and mine… will still be mine." She finished the last part with a wicked grin, knowing Freddie would appreciate the joke.

Freddie broke with that charming smile that drove his internet fans wild. "As it should be."

Jade sighed, seeing that discussion would only go around in circles for right now, "So, you don't want the house?"

"I didn't say that. I'm just wondering why you want it right now without even mentioning it to me before hand."

She bowed her head and whispered, "This was the house in my… trip to the future. I may not have liked how I turned out, but I liked the house and I wanted us to spend our lives here. I saw that it was on the market and I want to get it while I have the chance. I want to raise our family here, but only if you want to live here too."

He saw the conviction in her eyes that she was right that this was the house for them even passed the lingering worry that he wouldn't be happy with it. If he disagreed with her and actually fought her on the issue, it may have broken her heart. He only had one choice in the end. "Okay, if you really want this house, then you get the house. Let's call your lawyers and your money manager and make this happen.

"Really?"

"I like the house and it's a good neighborhood and most important, you want this, more than I think you even know." He finished rhetorically, "Are we really going to find a better one?"

She threw her arms around him and crashed her lips against his lips. Before he could even register the kiss, she pulled away and her face nearly broke in smiling. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," he answered with a pleased tone, but unfortunately it he still had to worry about some of the more practical ramifications of them buying the house. He pointed out, "But, it means we have to set a date sooner than we thought… unless you want me to pay rent to you?"

Jade took several seconds to get his point then uttered, "Oh?" She glanced down, letting that sink into her mind… the living together part. He paying rent to her mother had been the easiest workaround to his religious consideration. She nervously swallowed then commented, "We said that we'd probably wait until after you graduated—"

"Which is just a year, year and a half at most. I could pick up an extra class or two during the summer and maybe graduate in December and we could have a spring wedding."

Jade answered in concern for him, "I don't want you to rush your classes just to move up the date."

He tightened his arms around her waist and pulled her close. He sweetly smiled while answering, "Jade, if you want to go to the courthouse right now and get married, I would do it. We can call everyone up and have them meet us there as witness. The only concern I have for the date is that there would be enough time to plan it and make it special for you."

She raised her pierced eyebrow and playfully challenged, "It wouldn't be special for you?"

He could have easily came back with a pun-ny remark, but the truth was far too serious to make any light of it with a joke. He answered her with a solemn tone, "In my mind and heart, I've been your husband since… what happened to you during our senior year. As heart gripping as what happened and just having to watch and wait and make an oath that you may not have heard, the moment you came back was all the 'specialness' I needed, so when we have our wedding, it will be all about you and what you want to make it."

The dark haired musician tightened her arms behind his neck and whispered in return, "You know… I've kind of thought the same way about us all this time; that the wedding was just an elaborate formality, but… I would like a nice and maybe an 'elaborate' wedding. Something Cat would think would be a fairy tale wedding that really celebrates us getting married."

Freddie ran his tongue on the inside of his bottom lip to fight a grin that was threatening to break his face. He kept as much of his laugh out of his voice, "Then we'll have the fanciest wedding you want."

A hint of blush formed on her cheeks. "I didn't say a 'fancy' wedding."

"We will have whatever wedding you want. Whether it is a fairy tale one where I'm riding in like prince charming or we have it at night and you can wear your dress from the Scissoring or we all can dress in black. Whatever kind of wedding you want and when. You pick a date and I will make it happen. I just want you to be happy with it."

Jade fought back the tears that were threatening to form. She cleared her throat to try to regain her composer and dropped her arms from his shoulders to rest her hands on his arms then kissed his cheek. "Thank you. We don't have to rush the wedding, but I do want to buy the house now. I don't want it to slip through my fingers."

"We'll worry about the living arrangements later. Right now, get the house. _Get the house_."

Freddie's support just filled her excitement and reassurance and pulled him into another hug. She breathed into his ear, "Thank you. Thank you so much."

Jade loosened her grip on him and pulled back, but not far enough for Freddie's hands to be moved from her hips. He replied with an upbeat tone, "Okay, now that is settled, you're getting a house, how do I top this with a Valentine's present?"

"This is not a competition on gifts and this really isn't a Valentine's Day present."

"It's not? We've found the house we're going to probably spend the rest of lives in and raise a family. It's a pretty big gift to both of us two days away from Valentine's Day. The pressure is on for me to find the perfect matching gift."

Jade noisily exhale a soft laugh, "Okay, okay, I won't talk you out of it. You can get just as stubborn as me."

"Thank you. I'll meet you back home. I still have some shopping to you."

Jade lulled her head to the side and teased, "I thought you had found my gift. You didn't pick it up?"

Freddie slightly tilted his head to the opposite way to Jade and lips parted to an awkward expression with perhaps a bit of blush forming on his cheeks. He cleared his throat several times then almost sputtered, "I… I was… I was in the middle of getting you the gift when you called, but now I have to find something else too."

She gave him a close, nearly penetrating look to see how honest he was in his statement.

Freddie maintained his awkward grin, thinking she was going to look right through him and see he didn't have a clue what to find her.

Jade gave him a quick peck on the lips. "Like I said, I'm sure whatever you find, I'll love it. You go finish your shopping and I'll meet you at home—well, home for right now."

The dark haired musician turned to head for the realtor and began as she pulled out her phone to call her lawyer and money manager, "So, how about I buy this house…"

Freddie smiled, happy that his girl was happy, before starting out of their future home. He just hoped he wouldn't disappoint her already exultant mood with a lousy gift.

* * *

After leaving their future home and about a half hour drive, Freddie returned to the Green Meadow Mall to find Jade's gift with the backup plan that if he didn't find anything, he would swing by the Northridge Mall.

He spent about an hour browsing the stores, but nothing seemed to catch his attention nor could he figure out how he could express his love for Jade. He decided to take a break and stop at the food court between the spoke of two of the wings of the mall. He picked himself up a drink and a cookie, needing the boost of sugar, before taking a seat at a free table to try to gather his thoughts and try to come up with a new game plan.

He let the events of the last hour replay in his head while he sipped on his drink. They were buying a house. Jade was buying a house for _them_. He had accepted with surprisingly relative ease each of step in their relationship, perhaps because the struggling to the next step—initially letting go of the people in Seattle, struggling against his own morality to balance what was right with devotion to Jade, and her nearly dying to show how much she means to him—allowed him to psychologically and emotionally come to peace with each step, but this step just took him by surprise.

The plan to be on their own—though they really were on their own even under her mother's roof—wasn't in of itself shocking or unexpected, but the time was certainly throwing him off since in their, actually Jade's, hectic lives they still had a rough plan of how their lives were going to play out in the next few years. As Jade had brought up, the actually marriage would take place after he graduated then they would get their own place to begin their lives as a married couple.

Her buying the house certainly threw those plans out and moved everything up: marriage, living together by themselves, children…

…children, the very idea of raising children with Jade brought reassuring and warming feelings, which of course led his thoughts to a daughter existing only in their imagination: Sapphire. Their unborn daughter had crossed his mind on numerous occasions over the years, something to hold on to hope in their darkest times with Dusty certainly teasing him that they could always have a son first or may not have a daughter at all. It wasn't meant to be cruel, but a friendly reminder not to repeat his mother's mistake of wanting a daughter and never coming to terms that she had a son instead.

He wouldn't make that same mistake as they hoped for a daughter and a son, figuring they weren't going to stop at only one and could possibly have three before they were done. They would love them all without reservation or condition.

Freddie grinned and muttered to himself, "A child certainly would be some gesture of love…"

As he sipped his drink, he heard the fluttering of what he thought was the wind, which was odd since he was sitting inside the mall even if it was a well opened space.

"A child can be the ultimate expression of love between two people… or it should be," spoke a voice he had heard a few hours ago.

Freddie turned his head and looked to see Nathanael standing just a few feet away off to his left, but he had changed from his business suit to a black leather biker jacket, grey shirt and blue jeans. He smiled and offered as a friendly chat, "Oh hey, you just got off?"

Nathanael slightly lifted his chin and answered with a somewhat bashful tone, "Ah, yes."

Freddie waited for the young man to speak, but Nathanael remained silent and an odd silence fell between them. The college student felt mildly uncomfortable as the sales clerk looked like he was trapped and confused, similar to when Cat was caught up in a situation she didn't understand. He thumbed over his shoulder and asked, "So… you're stopping by to grab something to eat before you headed out?"

"Yeah, food, that's what I was getting," he answered as if he had made some kind of grand revelation. He turned and walked to one of the many food establishments and curiously gazed at some of the menus before settling on a simple drink and a Valentine's Day cupcake.

Nathanael walked back to have a seat next to Freddie, all the while the former Seattleite watched him with mild curiosity as something was off about his actions as if he was a tourist unsure of his surroundings. Once the jewelry clerk took his seat, he casually asked, "So you're still caught in trying to figure a gift for your fiancée?"

Freddie sighed deeply, "Yeah. I just seem to be literally walking in circles and couldn't find anything that I wanted to get her."

Nathanael sympathetically nodded. "My suggestion didn't help?"

"I do appreciate the suggestion, but I think that is just complicating it. I'm not sure what facet of my love for her I want to show.

"Understandable. You do have a number to choose from with what you've had to through together: you've bore many things, you have believed when you had no reason to believe, you have hoped when things looked hopeless and you've endured. How one little word can sum up so many things for you? How do you find one little token of affection to express all of that?"

Freddie slightly squinted, focusing on studying his eating companion and wondering if the sales clerk had figured out his identity.

Nathanael continued on, not missing a beat even with a change in topic, "Do you mind satisfying my curiosity as to why it was so urgent for you to meet up with your sweetheart?"

The college junior took a quick sip of his drink then lazily answered, not really seeing any harm in telling him the truth, "You're probably are going to see it online or hear it in the news… my fiancée is buying a house."

"Oh, so you two are quite serious and she has that kind of money?"

"We are _engaged_ and yes, she is that financially well-off to buy a house."

"I would think that many men would consider themselves fortunate to be a marrying up."

Freddie sternly looked at the jewelry salesman, clearly offended by the vague implication that he was marrying Jade for her money. "I am not marrying her for her money. We got together before she made her fortune and became famous."

Nathanael tilted his head to the side by maybe less than an inch and gave such a look of innocent confusion that Freddie was reminded of Cat. The gaze threw Freddie off a moment, a moment that Nathanael replied, "I thought my statement about all that you've been through for love illustrated my position on the matter."

Freddie was going to ask how he knew that, but he was interrupted again, "What do you think about the house? It seems like a pretty unilateral decision."

The former tech-producer thought about answering at all, but the similar expression to Cat lulled him into not wanting to spoil the conversation by pushing the point. "Yes, but there are… 'unique' reasons behind her sudden desire to buy a home. Don't get me wrong, I do like the house, it is just a surprise."

"Good or bad?"

"Good with emphasis on the surprise than the good," Freddie licked his lips and grinned.

"Have you thought about how you are going to compete with that as a Valentine's Day gift?"

Freddie raised his cup and answered, "Right?" He lowered the cup back to the table and continued, "She said it wasn't a competition, but… she just made the gesture of getting the home we may spend the rest of our lives in. I don't know how I can say or give anything to match that level of commitment. I've already proposed to her and she's accepted."

"So what made you start thinking about children with her?"

"Well that's the next step after marriage and getting our own place. We were always planning to have children, but getting the house she wants to raise our children in has gotten her on my mind."

"That's expected, but do you mind me asking what you mean by 'her'?"

"Yeah… our little girl, Sapphire."

"You already named your unborn child—I'm sorry to pry, but is she expecting?"

"No, my fiancée is not pregnant. We're waiting until marriage to have any children, enjoyed the married life for a bit and stable in both our careers then enjoy the family life."

"It's a shame that you have to wait years to meet her."

Freddie chuckled dismissively, "Too bad I don't have a Delorean."

The similar looking young man half-grinned and casually remarked, "I'm not a Delorean, but I think I could swing it for you to meet her."

"Excuse me?"

"If you want to see her, I think I could swing that for you. It's the perfect Valentine's Day present: you get to see her and come back with the story."

Freddie laughed, going along with the joke, "Oh, you could do that?"

Nathanael cracked a knowing smile yet his words were spoken with reverence, "Honestly? I'm an angel of the Lord."

The Seattle immigrant waited for him to say the punchline to the joke, but when Nathanael's smirk didn't fade and showed that he was being serious, Freddie got up from his seat. He looked to who he thought was a simple jewelry clerk. "What?"

"I'm Nathanael and I'm an angel of the Lord."

Freddie gave him a torn look. People had faith about angels, but he certainly didn't need faith in believing their existence with his experiences with them, so he only had his doubts whether the young man was telling the truth, not of their existence.

Seeing the doubtful expression on Freddie's face, a familiar high pitch hum started sounding from Nathanael and his eyes shined blue, giving away his celestial being.

Freddie looked cautiously to the young man that wasn't really a man. He softly sighed, "Another one?"

The humming stopped and his eyes went back to the normal color. "I know you've had your share of encounters with my brothers and sisters, but they've been positive for the most part."

"Yeah, you could say that," Freddie rolled his eyes as he reluctantly agreed other than Anna's hesitation in answering his prayers after Jade's assault on the very poorly thought out game show and fallout with the 'Nora incident'. "What do you want?"

"I don't particularly want anything. I'm here to help you."

"Really? Out of all the things you could be doing, you're here to help me with my relationship? My relationship is fine. Ever heard of the Middle East? They could us your help there."

Nathanael shook his head and sadly remarked, "I've been a soldier long enough and I'd like to have my old job back."

The computer science major's skepticism and mild annoyance turned into curiosity when he saw the haunted look in the cupid's eyes; it was the same look he had caught in Colonel Shay's eyes in quiet moments. "Your old job? What was—is your job?"

"My job was to help get people with their relationships. I'm what you would call a 'cupid'."

"You're a cupid?"

"Yes."

Freddie snorted out a laugh and slightly turned his head away to try to suppress a deeper laugh threatening to spill out.

The young man claiming to be a cupid asked, "What?"

The college student retook his seat, still trying to suppress a laugh, and asked, "Shouldn't you be a baby in a diaper and a bow and arrow?"

"Humans have vivid imaginations and some of my siblings don't have the concept of dressing appropriately—the more innocent ones, but I do have my bow and arrow, but I'm not going to use it. I'm here to help you express your love for Jade, not make you hop in the bed with her. You don't need any help in _that_ department."

Freddie frowned and smacked his lips. They certainly didn't need help on that front since it was personal choice on their parts to abstain from that certain activity until they were married. Not to dwell on his remarked, Freddie asked, "How exactly are you going to do in helping me?"

"You made a great suggestion: Sapphire is the ultimate expression of your love for her. By sending you to the future—the most likely future for you and Jade and get to see your child—I think the story of that alone to tell her would be quite a gift. It certainly would compete with buying a house."

Freddie thought on the offer. If it was true, how could he pass up the chance to meet his child? He looked back to the angel and asked, "How can I trust you?"

"You do have a quite powerful nephil as a friend who can take on full blown seraphs in a fight and his mom is an archangel that has a soft spot for you, so… if this is some elaborate plan to hurt you then I've signed my own death warrant as you humans would say and they would always bring you back."

Freddie nodded his head to the side, dryly remarking, "Point… and, if you really are a cupid, Dusty said that your kind are the decent ones, not… how did he put it? 'Monsters with good PR'?"

Nathanael regretfully agreed, "We cupids are the ones down here the most and the ones that… have the most attachment to humanity and yes… 'monsters' would be an accurate description for that part of my family. You do call them devils and demons for a reason."

"I wasn't necessarily talking about them and neither was Dusty."

The cupid's smile tightened and clarified in a struggling voice, "There were—some still are—traditionalists… traditionalists that had to be stopped… no matter the personal cost."

Freddie looked to the cupid with sympathy. It was one thing to get into disagreements with family members, it was an entirely different thing in having to fight and kill them. He apparently this cupid had to become a fighter from a lover and had emotional scars on his spirit. He questioned, hoping to turn the conversation back to the angel's original proposition, "So, you're going to give me the chance to meet my daughter?"

"It's just another trip like you had and Jade's had twice."

"Why not send the both of us? It is our child after all."

"Point, but this is about your love for her. It's your gift to her, not mine. It's up to you in how to make it into a gift for Jade."

The former web-producer thought about the offer. The offer seemed too good to be true, but the angel did make a point that there was plenty of incentive for him not to trick him. "Fine. I'll take this little trip, knowing that if anything does happen to me… you'll be…"

"Either a piece of charcoal or a husk with fried insides," the cupid finished for him with a laugh.

Nathanael raised his pointer and middle finger to Freddie's forehead, but before he touched him, the angel commented, "You should take some pictures." The cupid touched Freddie's forehead then the former tech-producer vanished.

* * *

Author's Note: I hoped I hooked you with the first chapter and you'll come back for the second and third chapters when I have them posted. Take care, OneHorseShay


	2. Chapter 2

Happy late Valentine's Day. I would have gotten this out sooner, but… things come up. I hope you enjoy and don't be surprised with familiar and unfamiliar faces.

PD31: You know my writing too well, but I think I have a surprise or two up my sleeve. Jedi has always been a couple that had to work for their happy ending as they weren't destined to be together and an entire sub-plot of 'We Love Each Other' was illustrated the idea that they were actually meant for other people in that cosmic soul mate sense. We'll see what kind of gift Freddie will be able to make out from what he learns.

Challenge King: The house is quite the surprise since he thought they had at least another year and handful of months. Jade will obviously get a surprise if Freddie does interact with their daughter and he can share hat with her. Thanks for reading.

Fanfic-Reader-88: I don't understand what you mean about Jade doing anything for Freddie. Setting aside the house, Valentine's Day should be reciprocal in gift giving. When they were ready to get a place of their own, it was always understood that Jade would be buying it due to her financial situation, but Freddie thought they would be doing a lot of house hunting together.

Nathanael's should be on to something as he was created by God for a specific purpose. He knows the meaning of his existence and it is romantic love—actually more like making sure people do what is necessary to make babies, but he takes his orders with a wide latitude of interpretation.

Twilight Warrior 627: It's good to be back into writing. Nathanael is a more in-depth character I've created, but that really won't get explored in this peace unfortunately. Thanks for reading.

seddieloverfan12: It's a three part story and this was just the first chapter to hook your attention. Glad you liked the chapter and hope you like this one.

Fanfic-Reader-88 and PD31 have updated fics in the last couple of days, so check them out. FF88's is M-rated, so all you underage readers should steer clear of it.

Rating: T

* * *

Chapter 2

Freddie blinked and took several seconds to get his bearings. He had moved at the speed of thought across space and dimensional barriers with Dusty and Anna, but it wasn't a sensation that one got used to in a few round trips. He took several deep breaths and looked at his surroundings. He immediately saw that he was back in the house that Jade was buying, but the living room was decorated with a different set of traditional looking furniture than the pieces that were in the home during the tour. Also, a large flat screen television was set up on one side of the living room and was currently playing Animal Planet.

He didn't have the chance to look around any further as a black and white Border Collie barked at his presence. He turned and knelt down to the dog that climbed down from lying in one of the seats, apparently watching the television, and lazily trotted to him. He cupped the side of the dog's face then gently ruffled it. He moved his hand down to find the dog's circular tag on his blue collar and steadied it to double check the name. The circular tag had the name 'IRA' stamped on it. "Hey boy, what are you doing here?"

The dog softly barked again and lifted his chin and attempted to lick the young man's face, but Freddie pulled back in time to miss the tongue. Freddie remarked with a grin, "It's good to see you too." He stood up and playfully scratched the back of the Collie's head and glanced around. He idly commented, "I guess Jade did buy the place."

He looked around and saw that there were several pictures standing on the mantel of the living room fireplace. He left the dog and walked to the mantel and stopped when he saw a picture of him and Jade in a tuxedo and wedding dress, clearly a posed shot at their wedding. She was wearing the white wedding dress that was her copy from Tawny of her favorite movie, 'The Scissoring'. He was half expecting her to wear a black wedding dress, which he wouldn't have objected if she had chosen such a thing. He cracked a smile at seeing how happy she looked in the photo, how happy they both appeared.

His eyes moved to another picture of Jade laying in a hospital bed, looking absolutely exhausted with naturally brunette hair matted her sweat soaked forehead, and holding a baby in her arms, perhaps minutes old at the latest. The child looked perfect and Jade looked happier than he had ever seen even through the weariness and exhaustion. He took a slow breath in realizing he was looking at a picture of their child. He couldn't tell if the baby was a boy or a girl, but the child looked absolutely fine and that was what mattered.

As he let that reassurance sink into his mind and heart, he glanced over to a neighboring picture of little girl, perhaps three or four with long brown hair, pale skin and blue eyes wearing a brightly colored dress, but trimmed in dark purple that pointed out Jade's preference for dark colors. He looked to the next picture over and saw what was a family portrait of not just he, Jade and their daughter, but included were Ian (obviously a few years older), their respective mothers, Colonel Shay (behind Mrs. West with his arms around her front), Carly, Spencer and Spencer's longtime (and onetime obsessed iCarly fan) girlfriend Heather with a little boy of their own around Sapphire's age. Everyone looked happy in to be in the picture as one big happy extended family.

Freddie smiled, reassured by the picture that things was good between everyone. He glanced around to take in more of his surroundings, but soon muttered to himself, "Where is everyone?"

Ira barked again and started trotting towards the stairs, leading him to the answer.

He cautiously followed the dog up the stairs and just as he was reaching the landing, he heard a familiar male voice, but there was something different in the pitch. He slightly squinted while trying to identify the voice and followed the sound of the voice and Ira to the source. The voice was soon joined with a giggle of a little girl.

Freddie paused at seeing a teenager in his mid-teens sitting on the bed with a small girl in his lap holding a PearPad reading it together. The teenager looked familiar as if he knew him when he was younger and the little girl was the same one in the picture he had just seen with her dark brown hair and pale face.

Ira barked by his Freddie's legs, grabbing the pair's attention. The little girl looked up and saw Freddie standing at the door. She shouted and crawled off the teenager's lap, "Daddy!"

The child slipped off the bed and ran to Freddie and out of instinct, he knelt down and caught her. She kissed his cheek and hugged him tightly around the neck.

Freddie froze from the grip of the child and what she had called him. He had to take a few seconds to realize that she was real in his arms, flesh and blood. He whispered the first thing his mind supplied after the initial shock wore off, "Hey my little angel." He scooped her up to rest on his left forearm and stood up. He studied her, trying to commit to memory every little facet of her being. She had long brunette hair, the same natural hair color as Jade with equally pale skin and her blue eyes and most importantly, she had her mother's smile. He knew this was Jade's child.

Freddie finally looked away towards the vaguely familiar teenager and cautiously greeted, "Hey."

The teenager slid off the bed, leaving the PearPad on it and Freddie got to study him, but not with the same intensity of his daughter in his arms. The unknown male had short brown hair that was similarly messy in the front that Dusty wore more than half the time and lean muscular build and just shy of Freddie's height. Ira trotted to the teenager and he reached down to playfully scratch the top of the dog's head while he answered Freddie mildly confused, "Hey, I didn't think you'd be home this early. I thought you and Sis were going to make an afternoon of it shopping?"

"_Sis?"_ sped through Freddie's mind as he studied the mid-teenager's face for a few seconds until he realized his identity. He muttered in nearly as much disbelief as holding his child, "Ian?"

The teenager smirked in such a way that Freddie was sure it caught many teenage girls' attention. "Yeah?"

The college junior shifted from an astonished expression to one cover himself like nothing was out of the ordinary, "Nothing, it's just… it's just good to see you."

Ian studied his brother-in-law with a mild squint of his eyes, thinking that something was off with the young man, but let it go for the moment and let out a soft laugh, "And I was worrying you couldn't wait to get rid of me."

Freddie's brow slightly nodded and lips pursed. "Why would I want that?"

Ian approached the father and child and softly punched Freddie's right shoulder and joked, "Oh come on Bro. What's that old saying about fish and family staying? They both start smelling bad in three days? I've been here more than a week. I know I got to be cramping your little nest's style."

Sapphire eagerly voiced her opinion, "It's been fun you being here Uncle Ian."

Ian hintly smiled and replied with a hint of sadness to his voice, "Thanks kiddo."

Freddie easily picked up something was bothering the teenager in his voice and earnestly countered Ian's point, "You're family and you're always welcome here." The first part was unquestionably true for the young college student in his own time and hoped it was the same in this time. The fact that the teenager was here reading a story to Sapphire by himself led credence to the second part.

Ian laughed, clearly finding the statement a little funny or his response to it, "So is your mom, but how often do you let her stay? Maybe three, four times a year and that's only for a few days before she and Sis are ready to kill each other?"

The young man from the past tightly smiled, seeing how some things hadn't changed and most likely never would change. He dryly responded, "Point."

Ian casually continued, "So, why are you home early?"

The older male cleared his throat and took a chance at adlibbing an explanation, "Yeah, I thought I'd ah… drop in early as a surprise. I wasn't sure how eager you were to babysit."

"I could be hanging with my buddies sure, but…" He looked to Sapphire and tickled her stomach. "…how can I ditch my niece?"

Sapphire giggled at the playful gesture.

Ian finished with a half grin dropping his hand, "Besides, I thought you two needed a break to yourselves. She has to get ready for the Grammies on Sunday and you Valentine's Day for her."

Freddie inwardly groaned as he still had to suffer going to them in the future. He loved of course to see Jade and the rest of his 'dysfunctional' family up for nominations and winning such as Cat and André did just a week ago to him, but then there were some celebrities he had to meet that thought the universe revolved around them. He hoped that Kenya had finally grown up by this point to stop acting like a childish ass whenever the person he rooted for didn't win. He doubted it since after nearly knocking Kenya's front teeth out when he tried to pull a 'Kenya' on Jade's win in 2014, the musician turned around and attempted to do the same to the musician Beck this year.

Freddie awkwardly remarked, "Right… the Grammies and Valentine's Day… I got what I needed to get done and Jade… she'll be back when she's back, but thanks. You know we appreciate it, but sorry to interrupt your reading."

"It's okay. We were almost done with the story then we were going to go downstairs for a snack."

The brunette child added, "Then I was going to make a Valentine's Day card for Mommy."

A smile formed on Freddie's face and happily questioned, "You were?"

She eagerly nodded her head.

He just looked at his future child for a moment to see her happiness then reassured, "I'm sure she's going to love it."

Ian walked around the father and child with his dog faithfully following him. "Come on kiddo; let's get you something to eat."

Freddie followed Ian while carrying his future daughter, feeling that it was surreal experience. He was holding his flesh and blood daughter, a girl created out of his and Jade's love but from his point-of-view, she hadn't even been conceived. The description was a bit of hyperbole and more out of the product of the physical expression of their love, but the description was an adapt enough description for him.

The three plus 'animal' companion reached the dining room and Ian split off to head to the adjoining kitchen. Freddie took a seat at the dining room table with Sapphire sitting in his lap. He had let Ian sit in his lap at times at the same age, so the concept wasn't entirely foreign to him.

Ira climbed up onto a seat across from the future father and present day child, from her point-of-view, and sat as if he was on the floor. Freddie gave the dog a curious gaze and the dog looked back at him as if he was questioning why he should be nonverbally questioning his seat.

Ian opened the refrigerator and glanced inside. He called over his shoulder while studying the contents of the refrigerator, "Freddie, you may hate your mom's food, but you sure took some of her habits."

Freddie looked over to his left at his brother-in-law and answered without thinking, "We just want to have some healthy food in the house."

"Bro, there's healthy food then there is what you get. I don't want to eat like Sis's rabbit. I could use some high fructuous corn syrup in my food from time to time."

Sapphire knotted her brow and gave her father a questioning expression. "You're giving me Easter's food?"

Ian turned to look at the father and daughter and answered, "Sorry to let it slip Sapphy, but your dad does give you rabbit food."

Freddie wondered for a moment how Jade's bunny Easter hadn't died of simple old age by now guessing by Ian's age. However, he turned to the most pressing manner at hand with his future daughter giving him a scathing look. He tried to come off as a good natured laugh, "I think your Uncle Ian is exaggerating a little."

The houseguest chuckled while he dug inside the refrigerator for what he wanted, "You can't tell me that some of this food isn't influenced by your mom. I'm not sure you have one thing in here that actually has in sugar in it."

The child pointed out with a confused pout and finished sticking out her tongue, "But you give me stuff that tastes good and Grandma Benson's stuff is icky."

Freddie uncomfortably smiled, wondering if he had turned a little into his mom in regards to food with his daughter. He hoped that wasn't the case as his mother could be ridiculous when it came to feeding him—the greens and on-air humiliation when he failed to finish them one time coming to mind—but at least according to Sapphire, she enjoyed whatever they were feeding her. Besides, Jade certainly wouldn't let him feed their daughter crappy food under the guise of being 'healthy'.

Ian pulled some mayonnaise, sliced ham, some cheese and a Jell-O cup from the refrigerator. He stopped by the counter to pick up some bread from the breadbox, a butter knife from a drawer and a plate then sat the items on the table. He smirked to the little girl and answered, "Your dad's a better cook though, that's why you haven't noticed."

"Years of practice cooking for your mom and Grandma West before you were born."

Sapphire furled her cute little brow and questioned, "Who's Grandma West?"

Freddie's stomach sank as the possibility that something could have happened to Jade's mother, but Ian was quick to answer his niece, "He's talking about your Grandma Lynn. He was just so used to calling her by her old name before she married Grandpa Shay."

"Oh…" the little girl answered as if it was some grand revelation.

Freddie raised a curious eyebrow at the admission that Mrs. West didn't change her last name after her marriage to the former Air Force officer more than the fact that they were actually married by now. He wondered the reasoning behind reverting her to maiden name, instead of just being Mrs. Shay… then it hit him that it may have been awkward with such a name given the history between them and Carly and Spencer's potential feelings on her having the Shay surname regardless of how much they did approve of the relationship.

Ian finished spreading the mayo on the bread during the exchange and put a piece of ham followed by some cheese on the bread. He handed the sandwich to Sapphire and she happily accepted it then took a big bite into her sandwich. The teenager headed back to the refrigerator and retrieved some red Kool-Aid and brought a glass of the red drink to her.

Sapphire took a sip from her drink then took another bite of her sandwich. Seeing Ira sitting on the other side of the table looking at her, she decided to tear a piece of her sandwich off and handed it to Ira. The dog raised his paws onto the table and leaned over and took the morsel of food from her hand into his mouth and eagerly munched it down, drawing a giggle from her.

Freddie rhetorically asked the dog, "Enjoying your place at the table?"

Ira finished the bit of sandwich then looked at him with a look in his eyes that showed far more intelligence than a dog should rightfully possess.

Ian answered as he started making his own sandwich, "Sorry about that. I've spoil him too much over the years in feeding him stuff my parents tried to give me, but I never enjoyed eating, so he hangs around the table and he sometimes forgets he's a 'dog'. I certainly wasn't going leave him at home. They've never liked him."

Freddie held his tongue on his thoughts on the matter, that Ian's parents didn't like Ira due to the circumstances of the 'dog' becoming his loyal companion. However, he remarked with a soft snort out of breath, "I still expect him talk one day like the dog on that Dingo show."

Ira tilted his head to the side and licked his lips, almost as if he was devilishly smiling to tease him that he just might do such a thing one day.

The computer science major from the past shook his head at the near smartass expression on the dog's expression, a trait no doubt that appealed to Dusty in choosing the former military dog before Ian became his master.

The temporary houseguest took a bite from his sandwich then answered between chews, "I remember that show. I used to love that show as a kid. I was so sad when they ended it."

Freddie wanted to naturally disagree that it was still on the air, but then reminded himself that he was in the future and the show had to be off the air by now. He turned his attention to the precious thing in his lap still happily eating her sandwich. He was still trying to wrap his head around the fact that he was holding his child. He had no illusions about the responsibility and awesome burden it was to raise a child, but as happy as he and Jade were in their own time, he felt oddly envious of his future self in how happy he must have been with his family. He had to figure out how to share even a smidgen of what he felt right now with Jade.

However, he felt a more pressing matter that needed his attention—literally pressing. He wrapped his arms a little tighter around Sapphire and shifted her to take a seat next to him. "Sorry honey, but my legs are starting to fall asleep."

She looked a little disappointed, but continued eating her sandwich with sips of her drink.

Freddie asked, hoping to strike up a conversation with his own child, as odd as that seemed, "So what were you reading?"

The precious stone namesake finished a morsel in her mouth and eagerly answered, "We were reading some Grimm Fairy Tales."

The time traveler cautiously asked while darting a look towards Ian, knowing that since they were Grimm, that they weren't as kid friendly stories as Dingo would make them, "I hope it wasn't too scary."

The second West child to attend Hollywood Arts snorted out, "She is Sis's daughter, define scary."

"Dolphins?"

Ian raised a finger as he was about to challenge his brother-in-law, but then realized his point that as scary Jade may be, there are things that one couldn't anticipate and shut his mouth.

Sapphire innocently asked with wide eyes, "I like dolphins. Remember when I got to pet one at SeaWorld?"

Freddie shot an eyebrow up at the news of what was obvious some family vacation. Jade must have been a nervous wreck during such a trip. They had overcome her fear of the ocean over several beach trips, but dolphins still freaked her out. He delicately answered, "You may like them sweetie, but your mom… she had a bad experience with them when she was a kid and she's kind of afraid of them."

Ian laughed, "You mean like Carly and the goat?"

Freddie turned his head and just raised an eyebrow. He still to this day didn't know the story about the goat on Carly's birthday before the one where Spencer accidentally burned her room up.

The child curiously questioned, "Aunt Carly and a goat?"

Saving the future father from an explanation, Ian answered, "Never mind. Your dad just doesn't want me to read you anything scary that could give you nightmares."

Sapphire slightly pouted, putting on a similar look when Jade got mad over something, not liking the idea that her Daddy could hamper her enjoying a good story. "Mommy let's me watch scary movies with her."

Freddie wasn't sure how to react to the response. Getting that look from Jade was one thing, but getting it from his daughter was not something he knew how to handle, especially since Jade was apparently getting their daughter into her taste of genres.

Ian snorted out a laugh and delicately tried to point out, "Sapphy, those aren't exactly 'scary' movies that you watch with your mom."

The child turned her adorable withering gaze towards Ian, which caused the house guest to reply, "I'm sorry, I don't find Tim Burton films scary anymore."

Sapphire raised her chin and confidently stated, "I think they're pretty scary and great."

"I didn't say they weren't great, just that I don't find _Corpse Bride_ or _Nightmare before Christmas_ scary anymore at my age. Sorry kiddo."

The dark haired child turned back to her sandwich, but she was still clearly pouting that Ian wasn't going to agree with her. Freddie was just relieved about what she defined as 'scary' movies.

After only a minute or so, Sapphire finished her sandwich (having split more of it with Ira) and reached for the red Jell-O cup. She eagerly pulled the silver top off the fruit snack and taking a spoon that Ian provided, scooped into it.

Ian looked at his niece for a few seconds then shook his head and rolled his eyes.

Freddie questioned, "What?"

The teenager laughed, "Getting her sugar-free; you are a _cruel_ man."

Freddie smacked his lips and pointed out, "I'm sure I make it up in other ways and don't sacrifice taste." He looked to his daughter grinning to him while enjoying her fruit snack. "She obviously is enjoying it."

Sapphire finished her Jell-O cup in silence with Ian offering as she finished, "I'll put all this up while you and Sapphy go get her art supplies?"

The little girl answered him by scooting off her seat and dropped off the cup into the trashcan then started on her way to her room. Freddie got up and quickly caught up with her. She took his hand and led him to the stairs.

They climbed the stairs and retraced their steps but turned off before reaching the guest room. She rushed into her room and he cautiously followed behind. Freddie stopped as soon as he was past the threshold at seeing the bedroom. He had just seen the room not more than two hours ago during the tour of the house, but the sheer size of the room still gave him pause. It was large, larger than his when he was growing up, but not as large as Carly's ridiculously sized room in her apartment in Seattle.

Sapphire ran to an art desk for her size and rummage for the needed supplies which she was well stocked with crayons, colored paper, construction paper and paints. Freddie saw a little canister with half a dozen different colored pairs of safety scissors. He half smirked while he shook his head, seeing Jade's influence on their child.

While she was busy deciding what supplies she would need, Freddie took the opportunity to examine room in further detail. The room was decorated as he expected a little girl's room to appear with various dolls and stuffed animals sitting on shelves, other toys and posters of Dingo princesses yet a few smaller posters of fantasy, horror and science fiction movies. There was even a poster of _The Nightmare before Christmas_. However, he noticed that mixed in with what would be the girl toys there were what looked like his old action figures (the ones he had opened and played with as a child) from _Lord of the Rings_ and _Galaxy Wars_.

The rest of the room had a cheerful disposition, but there were parts of the room did have darker color schemes, no doubt influenced by Jade while other parts had things that reflected Freddie such as a model of the Solar System and space ship models. One particular model on a dedicated stand with a small gold plate on the base caught his eyes as there was a ball cap next to it with the U.S. Air Force symbol on it.

He walked over to the dresser under the widow to the room. It looked like a space fighter, but he didn't recognize from what movie or show it belonged. It with dark gray with forward swept wings to make it look somewhat like a boomerang with the wings bent down and the cockpit on top. He took a closer look at the little dedication plaque with the U.S. Air Force symbol on it and saw the detailed writing: _F-302 Mongoose, United States' First Space-Superiority Fighter, Launched 2002 A.D._

Freddie raised an eyebrow as his curiosity grew in that it looked as if it was a real fighter plane of the Air Force. He grinned and shook his head in thinking how cool it would be if they did have real space fighters.

The time traveler looked away and saw there were several pictures of her, Jade and Freddie at several locations and events such as the beach, Dingo Land, LegoLand and one where Sapphire was petting a dolphin and Jade looking as if she was doing her best not to freak out from the animal. A final picture certainly gave him a surprise as it wasn't that it was one with Sapphire in a little formal red dress and Colonel Shay in a smart business suit, after all, he was her grandfather with marrying Mrs. West, but the fact that it was taken inside the Oval Office of the White House.

Freddie mumbled, "It's good to be the President."

His eyes eventually glanced up and saw the ceiling. His mouth dropped open at seeing the ceiling covered with a star field that he knew just had to glow in the dark when the lights where out. He studied them for a few seconds and realized that they weren't haphazardly put on the ceiling, but arranged properly for constellations that could be seen if not for the ambient light of the city. The choice in decoration clearly must have been his idea.

Freddie was pulled from his fascination by Sapphire grabbing his hand and tugging him to follower out of the room. He didn't argue and immediately followed her as she had an armful of art supplies to make her card for her mother.

They headed back downstairs and returned to the kitchen. Ian had cleaned the table and there was a PearBook resting on it. Ian called out from the living room, "I thought you might need it in case Sapphy wants some inspiration."

"Thanks."

Freddie took a seat back at the table and Sapphire climbed onto his lap. He smiled then turned his attention to the laptop. Thankfully, web-browsers had not significantly changed over the last several years, so he was able to quickly perform a few searches to find a few Valentine pictures. Once Sapphire picked the ones she wanted, he clicked on the print button and several printers appeared: 'Recording Studio' and 'Freddie's Office'. He smirked at seeing that apparently he had an office. In a house this big, it shouldn't have surprised him too much as they had plenty of rooms and it was just the three of them—four at the moment apparently. He realized the problem however that he didn't know where his office in the house was located.

He glanced over his shoulder and asked, "Ian, could you pick up what I printed out from my office?"

"Sure, no problem," the teenager answered as he teenager flung himself forward and onto his feet before heading to the office.

While Ian was on his way to pick up the papers, the father and daughter moved to the living room and to the coffee table. Sapphire took a seat between the coffee table and couch and the floor and began to set out all her supplies that she would need to make the best birthday card for her mother. Ira walked up and laid down beside Sapphire and snuggle his head to rest on her lap.

The houseguest teenager returned and brought out the printouts to his niece. She took the papers and she happily started cutting out and drawing on of the pieces of construction paper.

Ian retook his seat on the couch on the other side of Sapphire to Freddie's seat and turned the channel from the Animal Planet.

The dog lifted his head up from Sapphire's lap and gave his master a disapproving look, as much as a dog could give such a look.

Ian shook his head and answered, "Sorry buddy, my turn for the television."

The Border Collie reluctantly rested his head back on the little girl's lap while Ian turned the channel to look back. He selected a program and started it. As the program loaded on the screen, Ian looked to Freddie and informed, "I hope you don't mind me watching this with Sapphire here. I missed it a few days ago and I hear it isn't too scary of an episode."

Freddie raised an eyebrow at the statement as the program finished loading. He watched as a glass panel shattered on the screen followed by a stylized title of: 'Supernatural', giving it away as some horror/urban fantasy show. It immediately caught his attention with the possible premise. He watched a black Impala, the same car that Dusty got as a graduation present from his dad a few years ago, drive on the screen, finding it a funny little coincidence. However, as the opening credits appeared at the bottom of the screen, his interest turned into surprise at seeing after the stars' names and credit to the show being based on a series of books was the name of the creator and executive producer: Dustin 'Dusty' Hale.

The former tech-producer shook his head. The one person out of their group that didn't want to have anything really to do with the entertainment industry other than his connection to them and his girlfriend had a show of his own.

As the show played on and Sapphire was lost in her own little world in making a card, Freddie divided his attention of just enjoying sitting there with his daughter and his brother-in-law that easily could have become his son if things had turned out just a little differently… probably was a father figure to him until the present as much as Jade had to be a mother figure for him.

In light of that relationship, Freddie had the curiosity of knowing how much longer Ian was going to be staying and why he was staying over in the first place, but he couldn't exactly ask without giving himself away as not being the present day Freddie. "So… you have any plans for Valentine's Day? Plan to wish your mother a Happy Valentine's Day?"

Ian pursed his lips and answered with a sour tone, "I'm going to spend Valentine's Day with Grace—as long as her mom doesn't get on our case too badly, but mom… only if I have to."

Freddie didn't give it much thought that Ian had a girlfriend as with his looks, that wouldn't be difficult for him. He glanced down to Sapphire oblivious to the conversation as she drew her own heart on the pink construction paper. He cautiously continued, "That bad?"

Ian rolled his eyes and let out a loud sigh, "You know how my dad can be. I disagree with him on one thing, he thinks I'm going to be all rebellious and turn out like Sis. Disagreeing with him on practically _everything_ this year pushed him to his limit. Getting into Hollywood Arts was the breaking point for him, but he just didn't blow up about it until last week. I guess he thought I would hate it after a week and quit."

Freddie took a moment to process the fact that Ian was going to Hollywood Arts and their disagreement was over him being in the school. Mister West was having the same reaction to his son as he did his daughter. Apparently it went over the father's head that his daughter had succeeded despite the odds stacked against her and perhaps thinking lightning wouldn't strike twice.

"What about your mom? I wouldn't think she'd be all that happy that you left home to stay with us."

"No she's not, but if she really has a problem with it, let her deal with 'dad'. He's the one with the problem and I'm not just going to 'make nice' with him—which is to just drop out of Hollywood Arts—to please either of them."

Freddie didn't have to contemplate that much on Ian's mother's possessive of her son with all the tug-of-war encounters between her and Jade. "Your mother isn't the one to simply accept you not being there."

Ian indignantly remarked, "What is she going to do? Call the cops on me and drag me back?" He motioned towards the front door. "Besides that army of security guards you have around the house and army of lawyers Sis has on the payroll they would have to get past, that would just alienate us more and I would sneak out the first chance I got. She couldn't hold me hostage."

"No, she couldn't. Jade would certainly see to that, but was walking out the best thing to do though?"

The questioned seemed ridiculous to him for any number of reasons with Mister West being a stubborn man and over the years Jade's inability to have the relationship she wanted with him. He couldn't recall a time where Mister West admitted that he was wrong or compromised about anything.

"You did the same thing when you were fifteen too when your mom just crossed that line one too many times."

Freddie reluctantly admitted as Ian obviously knew enough of the story to bring it up, "Yeah, I did."

An awkward pause formed between them for several seconds before Ian continued, "Thanks for letting me stay. I know you don't have to do this and I'm just intruding on your picture perfect family."

"Ian… you're family."

"Stepfamily and I'm your _step_ brother-in-law."

"That has never meant a thing to Jade… okay, when your dad first married your mom, but I'm sure you and Jade have talked about that. She was a teenager at the time and your father more or less abandoned her for… you and your mom, she was not much older than you at the time and she wasn't exactly objective about what was going on. I just had to give her a slight nudge to get her out of her emotional hurt to see the situation with a clear mind."

"I know. She's never said it, but I've picked up on the fact that he saw—maybe still sees—me as his second chance to get things right with a kid that didn't work out with her. I did kind of replace her in dad's eyes."

Freddie could only initially frown at the point, hating that ugly truth was out in the open. "Yes you did, but whatever problems and disagreements she has with her father that came from that has nothing to do with how she feels about you. Jade loves you and sees you as her brother. You can never doubt that." Freddie took a deep breath and continued, not thinking whether or not he had revealed this in the future to the teenager, "I don't know if Jade has ever told you this, but… there was a time where she was willing to fight your dad and mom for custody of you after what happened with Nora."

Ian paused, clearly stunned by the news. He glanced at the table and seeing Sapphire gluing a sheet of white paper on top of a red sheet of construction paper, taking the moment to gather his thoughts. "No, she never mentioned it. I just remember that mom was furious at the time with Sis after what happened with Nora and it blew over…" He glanced over to the dog resting his head on the lap of the child obliviously to their conversation. "…and I got Ira out of it, but…"

He looked back to Freddie to finished, "…Sis never brought that up. That's a nice sentiment from her, but there wouldn't have been any chance of her winning custody of me, of her being my…"

"So? That didn't matter to either of us, especially to Jade. You should _never_ underestimate her."

Ian may have initially avoided using the word, but then pushed ahead, "What? I was what? Six? She was going to be my mom if she won? You were going to be my dad?"

Freddie tilted his head ever so slightly to the side and answer with a finality that would have put a chill in many people that would challenge him, "Yes."

Ian licked his lips and put up a guarded express, clearly trying to handle the surprising news.

The time traveler took a deep breath then continued, knowing he was crossing an emotional mine field, "We always knew there was something… maybe not wrong at your house, but there wasn't something necessarily right. There was something, perhaps… lacking at home and Jade was always concerned about it. She always wanted to make sure to let you know that you had someone that loved you—that she loves you—and if that meant going head-to-head with your mom and dad so you could be someplace where you would have been… raised without any of those doubts then…"

Freddie didn't have to finish the statement for Ian to understand his meaning as the teenager's guarded expression attested. The time traveling college junior grinned as he continued, "Fortunately, it didn't come to that, but it was touch and go there."

Ian glanced away and gruffed several times to clear his throat. His expression showed that he was trying not to get emotional as the topic was a dicey one for him. "Jade is… I did look to her a lot as my mom. I just have vague memories of her initially not liking me, but… like you said, we were all caught up in the situation at the time. I was getting a new dad and basically replacing her in dad's eyes and mom… as cheerful and joyful as she comes across… there's some stuff she keeps hidden she doesn't think other people realize. I think what you guys were picking up at home—what I didn't realize at the time—was that there was a sliver of resentful towards me for being the cause of the end of her marriage to my biological father. I kind of figured out he never wanted children. It wasn't all that noticeable by anyone else, especially since Dad embraced fatherhood so readily, but there just something… missing even if it was a tiny bit."

The teenager houseguest glanced towards the television for a distraction as he continued, "When Jade really became involved with my life, especially after she got back from her first tour, the resentful started coming out of her in seeing that I was bonding with Jade… maybe that I loved Jade more than my mom." He darkly chuckled, "Another guy leaving her for another woman, but Jade's been a good mom to me and…" He replaced his melancholy tone with an upbeat tone, "…and you've been an alright dad when I need one, so everything is alright."

Freddie felt his throat constrict and felt a little choked up. He managed to grin and reply in a seemingly cool voice, "Thanks. I've tried my best. I probably had to make it up as I went along, but I hope I managed."

"You did just fine…"

Ian turned his attention away from the emotional conversation and slid off the couch to have a seat next Sapphire and helped her cut out the final heart for her card. She looked like she was ready to glue it to the inside of the card, but her uncle asked, "Do you want to glue or write something first?"

The brunette child thought for a second, unsure which she should do first.

Ian suggested, "How about you write what you want to say to your mom then we can decorate it?"

Sapphire nodded her head in agreement then took a black color pencil and surprising Freddie, began neatly writing a message. He cracked a smile of pride of her ability and wondered between him and Jade, which one should get the most credit for their child's intelligence.

The pair took another few minutes to finish writing out the message and gluing the various colored and sized hearts and flowers inside and out of the card. Once Sapphire was happy with the card and dried enough, she shouted and proudly held up the card to show her father, "Done!"

Freddie glanced to the decorated red, pink and white card in her hands. It was pretty decorative and saw the spark of creativity that Jade possessed and himself to a lesser extent. As he looked at the card and his child, Nathanael's words sprung to mind and suggested, "Why don't we put a picture in the card? I think that would really personalize it."

Ian replied, "Good idea."

He stood up with Sapphire following. They took a seat on the couch and Ian took Sapphire to sit on his right thigh.

As Freddie pulled out his rectangular PearPhone from his jacket he never really shed and opened up the camera, Ian snorted out, "Where did you find that relic?"

The computer science major shrugged a shoulder and verbally waved off with a nervously laugh, "Oh, you know… I hang on to everything electronic."

"Yeah, you really should clean out your office filled with all that electronic chizz. It's almost reaching the ceiling."

Freddie embarrassingly smiled, not sure how to really respond. He used to collect a lot of odds and ends of electronic equipment when he was in middle and high school, leaving the vast majority of it in Seattle, but he hoped he hadn't become a hoarder as he grew up.

The child looked up to her uncle and asked with a knotted expression, "What's 'chizz'?"

Freddie and Ian paused, unsure how to answer the child before the teenager remembered, "It's a German sausage."

Sapphire still looked confused.

He elaborated, "It's like your pepperoni on your pizza."

She turned to her father and pleaded, "Ewww, can we have pizza for dinner?"

Ian gently mocked Freddie, "If you're going to have pizza, your dad might want to get started. It might just get done before your bedtime."

Freddie rolled his eyes and sighed. He may have been a practical perfectionist when it came to his pizza, but there was no need for the Hollywood Arts student to exaggerating it to that point. He sat that aside for what he saw was the more important matter. He held the PearPhone vertically and set the picture to the highest resolution, silently cursing himself that he didn't have a digital camera on him, but then again the latest PearPhones could record in 1080HD. He just had to worry about how much memory he had for his phone. "Okay, smile."

Sapphire shouted, "Cheese!" and Ian smirked, as if he was trying to get a girl's attention.

Freddie held back a chuckle and snapped a picture. The phone made a clicking sound then he asked, "One more."

The pair remained sitting with simple smiles and he took another snap.

"Okay, I got it." Another thought occurred to Freddie and casually asked, "How about I record a little message from you two for Jade?"

"Okay?" Ian questioned, unsure of his brother-in-laws thinking. He reached for the remote and turned off the television to eliminate the background noise.

Freddie switched to recording and started filming. "Whenever you're ready."

Ian started off with a smile, "Okay Sis, your brilliant husband wanted us to record you Valentine message. I hope you have a fantastic Valentine's Day…" He grinned teasingly as he finished, "…and we might be celebrating a little brother or sister for Sapphire by Thanksgiving."

The college student from the past cocked an eyebrow, definitely surprised he made such a joke. He had definitely picked up some of Jade's bluntness over the years.

Sapphire turned her head and up to give her uncle a curious gaze. "Why would mommy have a baby on Thanksgiving?"

Freddie's eyes went a little wide at knowing that Sapphire knew where babies came from, but he sure hope she didn't know any more about the birds and the bees.

Ian shrugged and suggested, "Early Christmas present from the stork?"

"Stork?" She looked to her father and questioned, "I thought angels brought babies?"

The onetime cameraman awkwardly chuckled, "They kind of do… I'll have your mom explain it to you when you're older."

The answer left the girl a little perplexed, but she accepted the answer.

The teenager's expression turned serious and finished, "Thanks for always being there for me… I love you Sis."

Sapphire eagerly spoke with a wave, "Hi mommy. I love you. I want you to have the bestest Valentine's Day ever! I can't wait to give you your present!"

The pair waved at the phone and shouted, "We love you."

Ira hopped into the frame and barked a few times.

Freddie clicked the end of the recording. "Thanks. I know she's going to love it."

Ian slipped from his seat to allow Sapphire the seat. Since he really didn't pay attention to the show he missed the first time and Sapphire was wrapping up her card, he turned the television back on and surfed through the on-screen guide to find something for Sapphire. He stopped on the Dingo Channel and a cartoon played on the screen.

Sapphire got comfortable on the couch while Ira hopped on the furniture and curled up to rest his head back in the child's lap and she brushed her hand over the top of his head, content with his protective presence.

Ian stepped beside Freddie, lowered his voice and questioned, "Why the recording? You don't expect to see us on Valentine's Day?"

"Of course not. I just thought it would be sweet to add to the present I'm giving Jade."

"So what did you get her?"

Freddie cocked his head to the side and answered with a smirk, "I'm still working on it. I think it'll be a surprise even to me, but I think this is going to go a long way with it. You two are the most important people in her life."

"So we're ahead of you to her?"

"Sapphire, of course, you on the other hand…" Freddie just grinned, letting the punch line hang.

Ian shook his head and join with the soft laugh before taking a seat next to Sapphire on the opposite side of Ira.

As the step-uncle and step-niece enjoyed the program on the screen, Freddie picked up the card from the coffee table to further examining it. He found it one of the most adorable things he had ever seen. While he was admiring the card made out of love, the front door opened and they heard Jade's voice, "Hey, we're home!" Her voice was no surprise, but Freddie's voice—the present day Freddie's voice—following certainly was a surprise, "We brought some early Valentine treats!"

Ian and Sapphire's faces put on shocked and confused expressions at hearing Freddie's voice coming from the front door. They turned to look back at the person they had just spent the last hour, but he was gone.

Green Meadow Mall  
Los Angeles, CA  
Thursday, February 12, 2015

"Enjoy your trip?"

Freddie blinked several times, trying to adjust that he was sitting back in his seat in the food court with the card still in his hand. He looked to see Nathanael wearing a slightly self-satisfying expression. The former tech-producer slowly answered and asking without realizing he was still holding the Valentine's Day card, "Yeah, but was it real?"

"Yes, it was real, but what you really mean is if it was true."

The college student carefully asked, "Yes. Was it true? Was that Sapphire?"

"As things are heading for you right now, that is the most likely outcome for all of you, but quantum mechanics makes the future always up in the air. You could always do something today that could change what you saw. That was an incarnation of her. Will that be the exactly little girl you will have?" The cupid shrugged his shoulder. "Who knows? Heck, you could still have a boy instead—quantum mechanics as I said. The future was always in flux."

Freddie nodded his head then realized he had brought something back with him from the future. He was holding the card Sapphire had made for Jade. He was suddenly reminded of the scene in Back to the Future Part II where Doc Brown held a copy of a future USA Today newspaper—which would to Freddie only be eight months from now—as an artifact from the future.

The card in turn reminded him of something else. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. He searched the files in his phone and brought up the most recent picture. It was Ian and Sapphire sitting together on the couch with Ira at their feet.

Nathanael half-smirked. "So you took my advice?"

The computer science major looked up from his phone and answered, "Yeah. I thought Jade would appreciate an actually picture of our daughter and unexpectedly Ian grown a little."

"I hope that I was helpful."

Freddie glanced to the card still in one hand and answered, "You certainly were." He looked to the angel to make it clear, "Thanks for the trip."

"You're welcome. Thanks for the easy job. It's good to be back into the game."

Nathanael grinned and with a flutter, the cupid vanished, leaving Freddie to figure out how to take what he just experience and turn it into a fantastic Valentine's Day gift for Jade.

* * *

Author's Note: I hoped you liked this second part to the story and you will stick around for the third part that I hope to have out in the next two days. I hope I teased you a little of what might be happening in 'Who are My Brothers?' in the future. Happy Valentine's Day/Singles Appreciation Day again.  
Jack Davis Griffo as Ian West  
Emma Stone as Heather


	3. Chapter 3

Hello dear readers! I have another installment for you. I was planning for this to be the final chapter, ut as I wrote, I realized that I needed to break it up into two chapters. Hopefully the next one isn't too far off. I hope you enjoy.

Fanfic-Reader-88: Freddie has stepped up unlike his own father (spoilers in 'Who are My Brothers') and he loves them. He has his own affection for Ian, but as the years passed, it was obvious that Ian would have a deeper impact on their lives as a couple.

The potential custody battle stems from what happens in about three chapters of 'Brothers', hopefully having one of those chapters up by the end of the week. Jade simply was a greater influence than her father to Ian and may be following in her sister's footsteps.

The irony is that Dusty would be in the entertainment industry at all since HA was always just a means to an end in getting a decent education and his only connection to it was going to be through the others involvement in it.

Challenge King: It would be spoilers for 'Who are My Brothers' to explain why Jade never took that step, but in knowing Jade, one must know she must have been satisfied in not taking that step as futile it may have been… or not depending on how much money she could throw around and other 'options' she may have been at her disposal.

I think Jade will have quite the surprise at seeing such a video.

Twilight Warrior 627: Drama at some point must come to a resolution at some point. Though no writer is perfect and resolution can be unsatisfying, it is important to try to strive for such a thing. I try my best to keep things consistent across my separate continues of stories, heck even sometimes crossing them in case anyone noticed about 'Ira'. Thanks and I hope you enjoy this next chapter.

Rating: T Language

* * *

Chapter 3

West Residence  
Los Angeles, CA  
Saturday, February 14, 2015

The first rays of the sun filtered through the window blinds of Jade's bedroom and across the sleeping girl's ivory colored skin of her face and exposed arm that held her light blanket to her chin while she laid on her side.

She slowly stirred as her body started naturally waking up by the time in the morning and the warmth of the sun on her skin, though she wanted to fight it. She didn't have any place to go and she was so comfortable and peaceful in bed. It was a great change over the years where suddenly waking her up could cause her to have a violent fit. She struggled for several minutes between the waking and dreaming world, but the waking world finally one out and she rolled onto her back.

While Jade's eyes remained closed, she yawned and pulled herself up to a seated position then raised her arms above her head to stretch out, allowing a considerably sex view of her with her curves that were accentuated by her tight fitting athletic tank-top. She dropped her arms and loudly sighed out a breath. She opened her eyes, ready to slip out of bed and head for her bathroom to get through her morning routine, but she was quite pleasantly surprised when she saw that Freddie was sitting on the edge of the bed with one leg crossed to rest his ankle on his thigh.

"Good morning."

"Good morning," Freddie answered with his charming smile then scooted close enough to her to dip his head forward and touched his lips to her lips.

Jade closed her eyes and instinctively looped her arms over his shoulders and around the back of his neck. She didn't question the fact that he had to have been watching her sleep in order to surprise her. The times they had shared a bed, which wasn't as often as people would believe, there were times where one would wake up before the other and just watch the other peacefully sleep. After only seconds of enjoying her first kiss on Valentine's Day, she laughed into the kiss, "I have morning breath."

Freddie pulled back enough to meet her eyes and joked, "Yeah you do. You could use some mouthwash."

She pulled her right hand from behind him and softly swatted his left shoulder, grinning playfully as she could always drop her (mellowed out) tough/mean girl image and let the sweeter side of her out.

He reluctantly pulled away from her and stood up. He pointed to the bed and stated, "Okay, you run to the bathroom and you meet me right back here. Right in this bed."

She raised her pierced, but missing ring eyebrow and smirked. "Oh? Right back here? Right back here in this bed?"

Freddie grinned his boyish grin that could slip through all of her defenses and answered, "Yep. Right here. I should be only a few minutes and if I'm not, you can keep yourself occupied by what's on your vanity. It's entirely up to you."

He turned and left her room without another word, teasing her interest in what he had in mind. A few sexy thoughts crossed her mind of what he could have in mind for her. Whatever hesitation and selflessness he may have about his own satisfaction in the bedroom, he had absolutely none when it came to her in making sure she felt satisfied and this morning may have been one of those mornings. However, it could be something entirely different. He could be quite surprising.

In either case, Freddie had a surprise for her and expected her to be there when he returned and she didn't want to spoil his surprise, so she decided to throw off her covers and slip out of bed. She hurried to the bathroom to go through her morning routine.

Jade nearly set a record for herself in using the bathroom and freshening up then headed back to her bedroom, sparing a moment to look past the railing of the stairs to see if she could spot Freddie. She didn't hear or see him as she returned to her room.

She was about to slip back into bed when she noticed on her vanity a heart shaped jewelry box sitting on the hardwood. She walked over and picked up the jewelry box and glanced at the attached card through the ribbon tied in a bow to hold the red jewelry box together. The message read: 'Happy Valentine's Day my love. I hope you enjoy my first token of the day.' She smiled at the gesture, remembering it was the little things as well as the big thing that reminded her of how much he loved her. She undid the ribbon and opened the box as if she was splitting the heart in two.

She pulled out a foam card for jewelry to find one diamond stud. She curiously looked at it before feeling stupid in realizing that it wasn't for her ear. She would not be telling anyone—especially Freddie—that she was fooled for a second. She looked in the mirror and put in the new nose-stud, wanting to surprise him.

The pale skinned musician slipped back into bed as she heard his footsteps approaching her room. Freddie returned tray with breakfast: heart shaped pancakes, omelet with cheese, toast and a few sliced fruits. He returned to have a seat across from her to present her breakfast.

Jade questioned with a raising of her ringless eyebrow and a big grin, "Breakfast in bed?"

"Is it predictable?"

"If I say yes, will you take it away?"

Freddie nodded his head to the side and rolled his eyes. "Ah… I just might."

She made a terrifying face that frightened many at Hollywood Arts years ago and a number of other celebrities with whom she had interacted over the last few years, but he found absolutely adorable. "Don't you dare." She picked up the fork and stabbed at the heart shaped pancake before he could even attempt to take the tray away from her.

He playfully laughed, "Okay, I guess you can keep your breakfast."

Jade had started cutting into the pancake with the accompanying knife to get her piece of pancake before she looked up and let the faintest of smiles appear on her face though her eyes were far more expressive in her happiness and thankfulness. She brought the piece to her mouth and began chewing.

The pancake seemed to melt in her mouth and moaned in appreciation to the taste. She grabbed some syrup to pour some of it over the fluffy breakfast food and cut her another piece. The pancake tasted even better with the sweet syrup. She turned to have a bite of her omelet then turned to grab a piece of fruit.

Freddie patiently watched as his love enjoy her breakfast and over the course of getting contentment out of seeing her contentment, he noticed the nose jewelry and idly commented, "I see you found your first present."

She grinned to him and answered between bites, "Yes and I love it and I love this breakfast."

"I'm happy you love them both. I wanted this day to start out great for you… actually I want everyday to start out great for you."

"It certainly is starting off great." She took the warm mug of coffee and brought it to her lips to take a quick sip. She pulled the mug away from her lips and looked wide eyed at him, "This isn't how I take my coffee."

"You may like your coffee black with just a little sugar, but I thought it would spice it up just a little. I added a little mocha with a little bit of cinnamon."

She took another sip then lifted a corner of her mouth. "You just might get me hooked on this taste."

"Oh that would be such a shame to add a little variety in your life."

"I have plenty of variety in my life with my career… and my very loving fiancé."

Freddie motioned towards the coffee to prove his point.

Jade sighed at conceding to his point, but didn't want to get into a discussion over it. "So, what do you have planned for us today?"

Freddie dropped his jaw in a playfully mocking manner and asked in a completely innocent voice, "I'm supposed to have something planned? I could ask you what you have planned for _me_."

She shifted in place to sit her coffee on her neighboring nightstand then turned back to the breakfast tray to lean over it and wrap her arms back around his neck to hold him in place. She licked her lips and wickedly looked at him and sultrily answered, "Oh, don't worry. I have something planned for tonight and I'm absolutely sure you are going to like it."

The hungry look she was giving him caused him to jar from his smooth attitude. The look was the same one when she was determined to give him the same pleasure that he was always willing to give her. He felt his cheeks rush with heat.

She flicked her eyebrow in triumph in getting his attention.

The college junior cleared his throat and muttered, "I do have something planned for us and this is our day, but… my idea may be a little nontraditional in mind for us."

"So it's something creative?"

Freddie tilted his head to the other side and looked as if he was being overdramatic in his contemplation, finding his confidence in knowing his plan. "I wouldn't necessarily say creative, but unexpected."

"Well you've certainly caught my interest."

"I hope I satisfy it."

"I have faith in you."

"Thanks…" His expression shifted solemnly and whispered, "I love you Jadelyn."

She let her hidden smile shine through. "I love you too Fredward."

They shared a deep and slow kiss, letting their spoken feelings be expressed through their actions. Freddie grinned into the sweet kiss and not just because of the taste of syrup on her mouth. The kiss lingered for lost moments, maybe even stretching into minutes before they broke away.

The couple shared a laugh before Jade returned to her breakfast and spent about the next half an hour together, Jade enjoying her breakfast while Freddie just teased her about how they were going to spend their day. Once she finished, Freddie took the tray on his way out and let Jade get ready.

About forty-five minutes later, Jade trotted down the steps, eager to find Freddie and learn of his plans on how they were going to spend their day. She was dressed simply with a grey Penny-T (wanting to tease him because he's the one that turned her to them and she had stolen quite a few of his old ones), blue jeans and black boots. She had forgone her colored hair extensions, but put in her brow ring and kept the new diamond nose stud that Freddie had left for her as his first Valentine's Day surprise. She wanted to be a little less recognizable as they went about their day, but she didn't want feel 'naked' and she definitely wasn't going to turn down wearing his gift to her.

She grinned to her fiancé waiting for her at the kitchen door to the garage. "So, where is our first stop?"

He took a loud sigh with a grin and answered, "It's going to definitely be a surprise and you'll know when we get there, just don't take it at face value." He turned and headed out the door, allowing Jade's curiosity to grow further as things definitely were not going to be what they seemed.

She followed him out into the garage and towards Freddie's '69 Dodge Charger, still looking in pristine condition. As she slipped into the passenger seat, she didn't give it a second thought that the booster seat for Ian—one that he was just a few inches short of outgrowing now—that they had bought a few years ago for him since he spent so much time with them was in the backseat of the Charger instead of her car.

* * *

About half an hour later, the '60s muscle car pulled into the driveway of the bittersweet feelings bringing residency of Mister Roy West.

Jade questioned at obviously recognizing her estranged father's home, "Why are we here?" She turned her confused and somewhat annoyed gazed to him, her brow knotted with the tension she felt. "We're seriously going to wish them a Happy Valentine's Day?"

He smirked and held a mischievous glint in his eyes in having her fooled in his plan for today. "Hardly. Frankly I couldn't care less about your father and stepmother, so that's not why we're here." He unbuckled his seatbelt and opened the driver's side door then stepped out, shutting it behind him.

Her eyes went wide as he practically left her in the car. She quickly unbuckled her seatbelt and followed him out of the car.

Freddie reached the door and tapped the doorbell, ignoring Jade's questioning and partially scathing look directed at him.

The door opened a few moments later and Mister West appeared in a polo with a sweater and slacks, apparently considering that to be casual for a Saturday.

"Mister West," Freddie answered with a confident smirk that held just a sliver of disgust for the man.

The standoffish businessman formally replied with a detached expression, "Mister Benson." He glanced towards his daughter and greeted, "Jade."

The internationally recognized musician and actress tight lipped answered, "Dad."

Mister West called out from over his shoulder in an authoritative voice, "Ian, your sister is here."

The seven, going on eight year old approached the door from behind his stepfather. The child had steadily grown over the last few years to a few inches short of four feet, not yet hitting his growth spurt. The irritation Jade felt towards her father was washed away at seeing her stepbrother. She brought him into a hug and warmly greeted him, "Hey Ian."

He returned the hug. "Hey Jadey."

The stepsiblings pulled apart at the same time Freddie asked, "So you're ready to go?"

"Yep."

Jade gave Freddie a fleeting look of surprise, but quickly smiled at the realization as to why they were at her father's home. Her man's surprise was unexpected for the holiday and not the most romantic option, but she wouldn't turn down the day to spend with her brother, especially when she knew he was up to something good.

Freddie reassured Mister West, "We'll be back at a reasonable hour this afternoon unless of course you and Mrs. West have plans for tonight?"

The father and daughter each had surprised reactions to his alluded offer. They shared reasons to their surprise as Freddie appeared willing to set aside his and Jade's plans for not only the day, but for the evening.

Jade felt for a moment she guessed Freddie felt like when facing a moral conflict when the choices weren't clearly right and wrong, but both comparably right. She wanted a special evening with Freddie, expecting a dinner from him and her own plans for them after such a meal. It was perfectly reasonable in wanting to have such a thing to share with him, but she didn't want Ian to just be an afterthought or something that needed to be looked after because her father and stepmother wanted the same.

She realized that may be a problem she and Freddie could face after their children were born. Would they just pawn off their children on Valentine's Day so they could have their alone time? It wasn't wrong to have alone time with one's spouse while having children, but that didn't prevent her from starting to have a feeling of guilt.

Mister West smugly smiled. "No, it's fine. I do appreciate the offer."

"Are you sure?" Freddie pressed, not willing to tolerate a brush off for them to just get someone else to watch Ian for the evening.

"I'm quite sure."

"Okay, we'll see you later."

The trio started back to the Charger and Mister West called out, "Have a good time son."

"Bye dad," Ian freely answered with a wave backwards.

"Happy Valentine's Day dad," Jade grinningly called out.

The estranged father's smile faulted for a fraction of a second then recovered to call out, "Happy Valentine's dear."

The father and daughter exchanged guarded expressions as she, Freddie and Ian got into the Charger.

* * *

The Charger made its way down Sunset Boulevard, a familiar road for the couple, to some unknown destination that Freddie refused to share with Jade as part of the next surprise. Freddie turned on his right turn signal and slowed the vehicle down as they approached a place they had reconnected after meeting the first time at a party held at Kenan Thompson's place and had spent a year together. Jade looked wide eyed when she saw Freddie turn the car into the parking lot by the sign: Hollywood Arts.

She looked to Freddie with a near dumbfounded expression, but he just maintained a smile while he pulled the car into its once usual spot.

"Okay, we're here."

"Yeah, but why are we here?"

Freddie's grinned seemed to grow as he casually answered, "Isn't it obvious? A surprise."

"It certainly is some surprise, but again, why?"

Freddie unbuckled his seatbelt and opened his driver's side door. "Oh, you'll see."

Jade slightly pursed her lips and narrowed her gaze on the back of her fiancé, not liking being stumped in not having a clue what kind of surprise he could be having for her at their old high school. Jade got out and put her seat down to unbuckle Ian's booster seat. The child stepped out of the car and they shut and locked the door behind them.

The stepsiblings caught up with Freddie as they cut through the Asphalt Café, another place that brought many memories to the young starlet. She still met up with everyone on a regular basis, but she didn't realize how much she missed having lunches at the outside of their school.

Freddie turned away from the entrance to the school under the metal platform to the second level and headed for the other familiar side entrance of the school that they usual entered when they attended. He opened the door to the school, surprising Jade that the door was opened. Jade wanted to asked whether they had to worry about being arrested for trespassing, not that she was overly concerned about getting in trouble, but that her father and stepmother would use it as a way to keep her from spending time with Ian, but since Freddie was so cool and calmed about it, she figured that it must have been alright. He wasn't exactly one to throw away the rules such as Sam.

Jade stepped inside followed by Ian. She crossed the threshold and a wave of emotion passed over her at seeing the surroundings. The main hallway and stairwell was the same, keeping with the structure of the school, with the Shakespeare quote was still hanging over the stairs. The only immediately noticeable changes were of the various locker door designs as they had been replaced over the last three school years. Seeing the changes actually felt bittersweet as the only ones they could know still going to school would have been the freshmen as they graduated and they would be seniors this year.

Jade smiled while casually remarking, "It's been a while. I've been meaning to visit, but…"

"Yeah, you stay busy and I know how much you missed Vice-Principal Dickers."

The dark haired musician turned away from looking at a particularly interesting locker on her left back to Freddie. She cocked an eyebrow asking if he was serious with his remark.

He returned with his charming smile that could just infuriate her at times even with the underlining affection it brought.

Jade turned to her right around the corner made by the entrance and stopped at where her locker was once located. She had taken the black colored locker door with scissors randomly stuck onto and sometimes into it home with her when she graduated. The one that replaced it wasn't particularly imaginative, but she couldn't really complain as she did like the butterflies on the black background.

Ian looked around in awe as it was the first high school he had ever stepped inside, but it wasn't just that reason. He had heard the stray stories of her sister's adventures and performances she had at school. "I always wondered what it looked like in here from all the stories about it."

Freddie asked with a knowing smile, "You think you might want to go to school here one day?"

Jade turned away from the replacement locker door and looked to her future husband and stepbrother, curious to the child's response.

"I don't know. I thought I could be a cop or an astronaut or maybe a fireman. I haven't though about doing what Jadey does. I can't sing."

"You don't have to sing. You can act or do something behind the camera—if you want to go into that when you get older. You can always do the other stuff. You have plenty of time to decide and you can always change your mind."

Jade wrapped an arm around Ian's shoulders and reassured him, "But if you ever want to get into the career, I'll support you one hundred percent."

"Ahh Jade!" a familiar and quite loud voice called out down the hallway.

Jade immediately recognized the voice and turned to see Sikowitz walk towards them. He hadn't changed at all since their graduation; he still was balding of course with hair sticking out from the sides and behind his head. He dressed the same as someone plucked out of Woodstock with his flip-flops.

"It's great to see you."

Jade opened her arms and shared a hug with her former acting teacher. She pulled back and replied, "It's good to see you too Sikowitz. I'm sorry I haven't come by as often, but…"

"I know you've been busy with music and tours and acting, but I know my students would appreciate seeing you."

"I will make it a point to come by within the next two weeks. I finally have a break from everything. I'm done with touring right now or interviews or anything and I don't have anything up for filming, but why are you here? I would think you would have plans for today."

"I do have plans for today, but once I got Freddie's call, I decided that I could take some time out for my favorite student."

"Sikowitz, have you been hitting the coconut milk again? This is Jade, not Tori."

The balding teacher turned an annoyed gazed to Freddie, but put on a wide grin. "Ah Freddie, I've missed your wit."

Freddie snorted out a breath while maintaining a grin.

Jade rolled her eyes at seeing some things hadn't changed with Freddie's protectiveness of her, perhaps even holding more of a grudge than she did over the years of being at the unfortunate end of favoritism of another.

The famous musician decided to speak to prevent in conflict between the pair, "And what is that surprise?"

Freddie laced his fingers with hers to take her hand and happily answered, "Well, I thought seeing a movie you love would be one of the treats I would give you, but instead of waiting tonight as we would usually do, I needed something that you and Ian could both enjoy."

"Then why aren't we going to a movie theater?"

"Because I know the perfect movie, but it is not longer in theaters and even with the nice entertainment center we have at home, it just doesn't have that… magic to it, so…"

Sikowitz picked up, "So he called me up to see if he could use the Black Box."

Jade glanced to Freddie. "You rented the Black Box?"

"He did it for his millionaire friend for the guy's son's birthday. You know, when you dressed up as a gian—"

"I know what I dressed up as," Jade interrupted with a raised hand and a tight smile.

Sikowitz motioned down the hall. "Since we are kind of on a time clock…"

He didn't wait for an answer and started leading the three by the familiar path to the Black Box Theater.

While they walked towards the theater, Jade curiously asked her former teacher, "Do you still like teaching?"

"Of course! I get a new crop of students every semester, but…" He grinned and leaned towards Jade to whisper, "…though I'm not sure when the next time I will get such a talented group of students as you and the others."

"If you ever get tired of it, let me know. I'll start dropping your name around."

Sikowitz looked hesitant, questioning the ethnicity of the proposition.

Jade softly nudged his side with her elbow and explained, "You know it's not just about talent but about who you know. It's about the connections."

The balding and wild hair teacher reluctantly admitted, "Unfortunately it is true. Roles are not given by talent, but by who knows who."

"I do appreciate the offer Jade, but I'm still happy teaching."

The Black Box was cleared save for a couple of cushioned seats used as furniture props instead of the standard gray metal seats with the projection screen down as it would be when students would show their films for class.

Freddie exited the theater by the left side entrance/exit and took the stairs up to the catwalk. He made his way to the prearranged projector and DVD player thanks to Ava as she was a volunteer to the school while still taking college classes. He tapped the open button to the player and pulled out a jewel case holding the DVD from an inside pocket of his jacket. He quickly popped the disk into the player and switched on the projector.

As the disk loaded, lamp of the projector warmed up and Sikowitz turned down the lights for them, Freddie trotted down the stairs and headed for the teacher's lounge.

The screen came alive while Freddie was buys in the lounge. The stepsiblings smiled in unison when they instantly recognized the opening scene from _Maleficent_.

After spending a few minutes in the teacher's lounge, he returned to the theater with a big bowl of popcorn cradled in one arm while holding a drink in each hand. He walked to the pair and brought each of them the sodas then sat the bowl between them.

They smiled in thanks to him and he was gone a second later to go and grab his own drink and some popcorn. He returned less than a minute later and passed by Sikowitz. "I appreciate this Sikowitz."

"You're welcome. I know you never thought it, but Jade was one of my favorites and I'm glad that I could help to make Valentine's Day a great day for Jade."

Freddie instantly thought of a witty remark about the truthfulness of the statement, but held his tongue. "Thanks, but if you will excuse me, I'd like to join them."

Sikowitz smiled and let them be as he could take the time to catch up on some grading. He did hate the mundane parts of teacher where he had to actually grade non-performance work.

Bots Restaurant  
Venice, CA

A little more than two hours later after the starting of the film in the Black Box Theater, the trio was at the robotic themed restaurant Bots with A.I. waiters. It was not Maestro's by any stretch of the imagination, but Freddie liked it and her brother definitely loved it, so she wasn't up for any complaining for today. An added bonus was that she could overload the logic circuits of the robotic waiters to make them short out, a trick she hated to admit she learned from Sam.

Jade and Freddie sat across from one another with Ian sitting next to his sister enjoying their late lunch. The child didn't mind spending part of the day and seeing one of his favorite movies, perhaps influenced by Jade, but he had wondered why today in being Valentine's Day.

Ian ate a few fries then asked, "Is this your Valentine's Day date?"

Freddie casually answered, "Yes."

He took a bite out of his hamburger and looked back and forth between the couple while chewing the bread and meat in his mouth. After getting enough of the food down, he curiously asked, "Isn't that supposed to be just the two of you?"

Jade turned her look to Freddie, curious about his answer of why he would include Ian on their day.

Freddie half shrugged and casually answered, "The holiday is supposed to be about romantic love primarily, but it isn't exclusively that kind of love. I made sure to speak to my mom and send her flowers for Valentine's Day. I did the same for my sister. I went ahead and did the same for a few others, Tori, Trina, Cat, Carly… even Sam, earlier in the week because I love them and wanted to let them know. You're Jade's brother and I know she would want you know that she loves you on this day. What better way to do that than to spend the day with her?"

Jade had never really cared to look at the holiday in that manner before Freddie. She wouldn't wish anyone else a Happy Valentine's Day other than her mother where it felt like an obligation during her late middle school/early high school years when their relationship was strained and when she was with Beck.

After Freddie, things had changed significantly in allowing her to be freer from her negative emotions. Now she wouldn't want things to be any different and was happy she got to spend the day with the people she loved.

Ian nodded in understanding to the level of his cognitive ability for his age.

Freddie deviously grinned while prodding, "Speaking of Valentine's, do you have one for this year?"

Ian was midway sipping from his drink when he coughed and began spilling drink past his lips.

Jade instantly grabbed a napkin to wipe his mouth and prevent any of the spilt soda to fall on his clothing.

Freddie embarrassingly apologized, "I'm sorry buddy."

Ian cleared his throat, mildly embarrassed that Jade was wiping his mouth, but he did appreciate that he didn't make a mess on his shirt. He smiled his thanks to his sister then looked to Freddie. "I'm fine. I did want to get a Valentine for someone, but I didn't get a chance to give her a card. We don't go to the same school to exchange Valentine's and we don't see each other that often."

"But you're friends?"

"I think we are."

Freddie let out a laugh, "So you're already a lady's man?"

The seven year old going on eight raised an eyebrow, not entirely sure what his future brother-in-law meant.

The college junior patently smiled. "Never mind, so you have your first crush?"

Ian took a particularly interest in his meal.

Jade directed a supportive smile and wrapped an arm around his shoulders. "It's okay. You don't have to tell us… but it is cute."

The child looked up and nearly pouted, "I don't want to be cute, but… I guess. I don't know. I just like her… like her more than my other friends."

Freddie put on a big and approving smile. "That's great. The first girl I ever liked was when I was eleven… I liked her that way for a very long time…" Freddie recalled fondly of his first love he experienced with Carly. The feelings had long past in being bittersweet and he had came to peace with a life that would never be and with Carly in that regard and let him be happy with this one.

Jade picked up, "So what is her name? Do we know her?"

"Yeah, she's ah… Grace."

Jade raised her pierced eyebrow and fought back a smirk. The reason why he didn't get to see her that often was apparently clear to the musician: they would only see each other when Ian was with her and she was seeing Tori since Ian's crush was the daughter of one of the pop star's assistants who frequently brought her child to work.

The dark haired musician offered with a sweet and supportive smile, "How about we go and pick something out for her and you can give it to her?"

"I don't know."

"We can get something simple so you can play it off that you just wanted to give her something like you did your classmates if you don't feel up to telling her that you specifically wanted to give her one."

"Hey, if you're friends and she got some from her classmates and friends, you don't want her to think you forgot about her," Freddie brought up with a knowing smile.

"Okay…"

Jade smiled, feeling nearly an overwhelming sense of joy that she was going to bring some happiness to her stepbrother.

* * *

An hour later after finishing their lunch and stopping by a neighboring store to pick up something that would be appropriate for Ian to give, the Charger pulled up into a parking space in the upscale apartment complex. Freddie looked over his shoulder after putting the car into park. "Okay, we're here."

Jade looked into the rear view mirror to meet her stepbrother's eyes. "You nervous?"

Ian looked back with an expression that showed that he was nervous. His eyes darted around, trying to suppress the anxiety he felt in his stomach. "Yeah. I'm really nervous."

Freddie licked his lips and softly chuckled, "Good, you're supposed to be nervous when you give your first Valentine to a girl."

Jade have smirked while slightly darted her eyes to her fiancé. "You didn't seem all that nervous for our first one."

"Your memory of it is far more forgiving than mine. I was terrified in messing up our first Valentine's Day. I never had a real one before you."

The pale starlet leaned over and placed a quick kiss on Freddie's cheek then looked over her left shoulder. "It's going to be fine. You're her friend and you're just giving her a Valentine. It'll be fine."

Ian nodded, trying to find confidence in Jade's confidence of the situation, but his stomach surely wasn't agreeing with the support.

The three exited the vehicle then made their way to the apartment. Jade found the right number of the apartment then stopped to tap the doorbell. They had to wait about a minute with every second making Ian growing more anxious before the door opened to reveal a lovely dirty blonde with shortness of breath about the same age as Jade and Freddie.

Jade smiled and greeted one of Tori's assistants, "Hello Rose."

After a car accident that brought the single mother crossing into the Hollywood Arts group's path—literally in the case of her car crossing across a crossroad and Tori's vehicle T-Boning the woman's SUV—the actress/musician felt so guilty about the accident, she wanted to do something to make it up to the single mother, so the logical thing to do was to give her a job. The blonde curiously questioned, clearly not expecting the pair to show up, "Jade? Freddie?"

The famous musician smiled and apologetically answered, "We're sorry if we're disturbing you, but… Ian was hoping to see Grace."

Rose looked down to the nervous child that was a current playmate of her daughter when the pair's paths crossed one another when Jade hung out with Tori and brought Ian along with her.

"No it's okay."

The blonde opened the door wider for them to come inside then shut the door. She headed to a mirror near the door.

Jade pointed out, "You look like you're in a hurry."

Rose slightly pouted in confused, wondering how Jade could know such a thing.

The dark haired musician pointed to her left ear to clarify, "You're missing an earring."

Rose puffed out a breath between her lips while wearing an embarrassing smile. "Actually I am on my way out. I have a late lunch date for Valentine's Day."

"You do?"

The blonde started grinning wide enough that nearly broke her face. "Yeah, he should be here any minute."

"What about Grace? Do you need someone to watch her?" Jade questioned in a tone that suggested that they would look after her for the day.

"No, she's coming along." She glanced to Ian and pointed out, "It looks like you had the same idea of bringing him along on your day."

Freddie answered, "It was my surprise."

Jade picked up, "Your date isn't going to mind that she's coming with you?"

Rose picked up the said earring sitting on the table under the mirror and put in her other ear and answered, "If he did, I wouldn't be going out with him today." She finished putting the earring into her ear then turned to the couple. "He knows our situation and he either accepts that she's an intricate part of my life or he can move on."

Grace walked out from her room after hearing familiar voices. She was in a light blue dress that went along with her complexion and hair color. Her expression brightened up at seeing Ian.

Ian felt a wiggly feeling through him, suddenly feeling apprehensive as if his mom was going to take him to see the doctor or dentist. He muttered, trying not to crumbled the card in his hand behind his back, "Hi."

The little blonde girl smiled and happily returned the greeting, "Hi."

"Happy Valentine's Day," he tried to greet her with a confident voice and keep the squeak out of it. He handed the card to the blonde and the little token of candy to show his affection for the girl.

Grace blushed and took the card and candy. She wasn't sure how to initially react. She had gotten a few Valentine's at school as everyone was trading them with one another, but it wasn't personal like the one he was handing to her. She didn't have anything to give him, so she did the first thing that came to mind. She gave him a kiss on the cheek.

The boy's face flushed in embarrassment from the gesture, but he wasn't going to complain.

Rose warned in a hushed tone towards Jade, "He better not break her heart."

Jade raised her pierced eyebrow and softly warned, "Hey, she better not break his heart."

Freddie held back a laugh, seeing the cuteness of the exchange and seeing he was far more successful than he had been even a few years older. He held his tongue while grinning, knowing that what he was witnessing was just the first step in the relationship that would develop over the next seven years into something more.

Future Benson Residence

13981 Aubrey Road  
Beverly Hills, CA

After allowing the children to spend a few minutes together that took for Rose's date to arrive to take mother and daughter out and brief and cordial meeting, Jade decided she wanted to show off their new home to her stepbrother.

Ian was in awe of all the large homes as the classic muscle car cruised through the neighborhood in route to Jade and Freddie's future home, but his jaw nearly dropped as the Charger pulled into the driveway.

"Here it is. This is going to be mine and Freddie's home."

"Wow…"

Jade stepped out of the car and Ian was eager for her to let him out. Once he was free of his restraint, he nearly leapt out of the car. Ian took the lead in walking up the half spiral stairs to the front door. Jade smiled at his enthusiasm and caught up with him moments later and pulled out her keys and unlocked the front door then pushed it open to let them inside.

The three walked into the foyer and Ian looked up in wonder at the vaulted ceilings of the living room, taken aback at what majesty of the home. "This is going to be your house?"

Jade wore a big grin. "Yep, I just bought it."

"Wow, this must have cost a lot of money."

"Yeah, but I've been saving my money and it's worth it."

"So you're going to move out of your mom's house?"

"Not right away, but I loved it so much that I had to get it before someone else would buy it."

He nodded, figuring it was only a matter of time before his sister and future brother-in-law would get a place of their own and be like a mom and dad, but without the children yet. He understood the significance when it came to him. "So since it will be you two, I guess you two are going to be spending more time alone… I want come over as much as I do your mom's house?"

Jade wrapped an arm around his shoulders and reassured him, "You can come over anytime. You are as welcome here as you are at our home now."

"Ira too?"

The dog was nearly inseparable from the child, being such a loyal companion, so when possible, the dog would accompany him. She easily answered with a smirk, "Of course he can come over… I just don't want him to eat me out of house and home."

Freddie smirked and joked, "I'm just not sure if I want him to eat at the table though."

Jade turned her head to give Freddie a confused expression.

The computer science major casually elaborated, "He's a very… intelligent and I think he forgets he's a 'dog' at times."

Ian proudly spoke up, "He's the smartest dog in the world."

Freddie just smiled, knowing there was far more to the dog than they let Ian know about his 'animal' companion.

The three cut through the rest of the living room and well furnished kitchen until they reached the professionally landscaped backyard with in ground pool with a stone pathway. Ian excitedly called out, "You got a pool!"

"Yes we do."

She saw the look in his eyes that he was half tempted to try it, but she had to put a nix on that for a number of obvious reasons. "I know what you're thinking, but not right now. When it warms up, you can use the pool. You can come over and swim probably during Easter break. We have to make sure it's properly cleaned and everything."

Ian beamed at the possibility while turning his attention back to the pool. He imagined all the fun he could have here as opposed to the times he had gone over to Tori's house. They were always welcoming, but he did start feeling that he was the odd one out being the only child at the summer pool parties.

While Ian's attention was on the pool and his own thoughts, Jade whispered to Freddie, "We're going to have to put in a security fence."

Freddie slipped behind her and wrapped his arms around her join his hands to rest on her stomach. "We could put in an automatic pool covering as to not ruin the aesthetics of the pool."

"Or both? We can't be too careful. There's got to be a way to have both without ruining the scenery."

He kissed her cheek and replied, "You're sounding like my mother, but point taken. Maybe we can look at something that is retractable, but they would have to tear things up and put them back."

Jade grinned, thinking that may not be such a bad idea. She knew she had to invest more money into the home as she had to either turn the yoga room into a recording studio or build an addition as she wanted two leave two bedrooms for her children without sharing, a guest bedroom and let one be a home office for Freddie. He deserved more than that as she had plenty of places she could go to write, whether it be music or screenplays.

"Come on Ian, let me show you the rest of the place."

They headed back inside and Jade gave Ian the full tour of the house starting with the first floor. The family room was screaming for an elaborate home theater system and Ian voiced his opinion, which Freddie quickly agreed followed by Jade. They loved the setup in Tori and Trina's home that would allow them to indulge in their shared passion for video games and her enjoyment of karaoke.

They finished their tour of the first floor and headed to the second floor. Their first stop was the master bedroom, the size and the balcony window doors allowing a fantastic view of the backyard and the pool almost calling to him to have fun. Ian looked to both of them and asked, "Is this going to be your bedroom?"

He understood that they were going to get married—though they seemed to be taking their sweet time in his opinion—which meant that they were going to share a bedroom like his mom and dad.

Freddie shrugged a shoulder. "It'll be Jade's until we get married. I'll grab one of the other rooms."

"When's that?"

Freddie laughed and spared Jade a humorous glance. "That's a good question."

"We're talking about moving it up."

Ian frowned, clearly expecting an answer he wasn't going to like, "Do I still have to wear a suit?"

Jade smiled, sympathizing with his predicament in wearing something uncomfortable at a wedding as she was still dreading what she might have to wear to her mother's wedding and more so to her own in what was expected of her. "We're figure out something you'll enjoy wearing."

He glanced around the master bedroom and saw the attached gym. There was the stray piece of fitness equipment, but it was clear for what the room was designated. "You have a gym?"

Freddie had his turn to smile. "Yeah, I have one of my own now and don't have to use the school's gym. It's a great perk to the house."

Jade was happy that there was something that really pleased Freddie with the home since it was pretty much a unilateral decision on her part to buy the place. "It really is. I won't have to go out and be hounded by the paparazzi."

"Those people that always try to take our pictures when we go out?"

"Yep, those guys."

"Mom doesn't like them. They make people think you're my mom."

Jade couldn't work up any sympathy for her stepmother with the blonde's behavior in regards to Ian's relationship with her over the last few years. However, to avoid Ian seeing the conflict between her and her stepmother, she forced a calmness to her voice and answered, "My fans know better, so she doesn't have to worry about anything."

They headed out of the room to explore the rest of the floor and as they exited the room, Jade leaned to Freddie and whispered so Ian wouldn't overhear her, "We can always have our own private workouts."

Freddie's eyes nearly popped out and felt himself blush.

Jade innocently grinned while taking his hand and leading him behind Ian.

While the walked passed the other rooms, Freddie poked his head into one of the bedroom and commented, "I guess you could always take this room if you ever stay overnight."

Ian stopped to see what he was talking about and looked into the room. There was a bed and dressers and it looked ready to be occupied. "Wow, it's bigger than my room."

Jade joined them at the entrance to the room and poked her head inside to see the room for a second time. "Yes it is. I guess it's yours when you stay over."

"And don't worry about crashing our love nest."

Ian raised his brow and put on a slight pout, clearly confused of what Freddie meant by the statement.

Jade was even curious as to why he would make such a comment.

Freddie chuckled and licked his bottom lip, wishing that he could explain it to them what he meant. Fortunately, if tonight went as planned, he could explain it to Jade.

Mr. Roy West Residence

Los Angeles, CA

A quarter hour after two, the Charger pulled up into the driveway of the fairly upscale home. Freddie put the car into park then the couple exited the vehicle with Jade turning so she could unbuckle Ian from his seat out of habit. After Ian stepped out of the car, they made their way the short distance to the front door.

As they walked, Jade asked Ian, "Did you have a good Valentine's Day?"

Ian nodded, thinking back on the day and wearing satisfying grin. "Yeah, thanks. It was great."

Jade paused and leaned down to hug Ian. "I'm glad. I'm glad it was a good one for you. Everyone should have a good Valentine's Day."

Ian returned the hug and answered, "Thanks. It was great."

The step-siblings pulled away and headed for the front door. Jade tapped the doorbell when they arrived and several seconds later, as if expecting their arrival, the door opened to reveal her father. "Dad."

"Jade."

He looked to his son and greeted him, "Hello son. Did you have to pleasant time?"

"Oh yeah. We went to the movies, ate at Bots and I…" He paused in thinking whether he should tell his father of his admitted crush on Grace and quickly covered himself, "…I got to see Jadey's new house."

Mister West tightened his smile at the mention of his son being taken to Bots. He didn't care for the restaurant with what he saw as fairly childish for a restaurant, but he wouldn't openly begrudge his son's enjoyment of the establishment. He was sure that as Ian got older, he would start appreciating the more sophisticated restaurants that he would take him and her mother on a regular basis.

That was quickly put aside at the mentioning of Jade having a new house. "New house?"

Jade proudly smiled. "Yes, we purchased one on Thursday. It's a nice place in Beverly Parks."

The distant father was well aware of the upscale neighborhood that a number of celebrities lived in Beverly Hills. He figured it was only a matter of time before she gave into the temptation of spending her accumulated wealth. Thought he had not agreed with her career choice initially as he thought they were a waste of time and 'stupid' and had to, as they say, 'eat crow' with how successful she had been so far, he was quite proud that she had managed her money quite well and not just blown it all in a spending spree.

"So you finally wanted your mother and Steven to have the house to themselves?" He smirked to show how little he believed in the possibility he was mentioning, "Well, whatever little time there'll spend there in case he can actually pull it off."

Jade put on her false smile she had to put on with plenty of celebrities she had to deal with in her business that she would much whether tell where they could go at hearing her father's slight to her future stepfather's plans over the next two years. She would admit the Colonel was pretty ambitious, but if things worked out, this time in two years, her mother and Colonel Shay could be living in the White House. It would be something else her father would have to admit he was wrong.

Mister West passed the quickest of glances to Freddie before asking his daughter, "Are you moving the wedding up? I was under the impression that you would wait until Freddie finished school."

Jade let her head slightly fell to the side and casually answered, "We're discussing it. We may move up the wedding or we make keep our original plan. We haven't decided."

"I see…"

He looked to his stepson and motioned for him to step inside. The boy entered the home and heard the sound of Ira barking welcomed his return. He waved back at his sister then disappeared.

Mister West continued, "Thank you for taking Ian out for a wonderful time. I hope you two have a nice Valentine's Day, but if you'll excuse me, I have to double-check arrangements for tonight."

The businessman began to close the door, but Jade shot her hand up to prevent him from shutting it.

Mister West cocked an eyebrow to Jade, clearly startled by her actions.

Jade curtly asked, "What are you going to do this evening?"

"Jade, I think that is a little personal to be inquiring."

"It's not if you're going out and leaving Ian with a babysitter."

The corners of Mister West's mouth turned downward and replied with heavy offense in his voice, "There is nothing wrong with spending the evening with my wife alone. I doubt your mother's plans with Steven include you."

"I didn't say there was in principle unless you know we're willing to have him stay the night, but you'll let a stranger watch him."

His patience with his daughter quickly thinned as over the years, she was willing to outright challenge him instead of trying to haphazardly seek his approval, something that he blamed on Steven and his unconditional acceptance. He may have done that with his own children—something that was still up for debate about Jade's paternity that wouldn't be voiced—where the result was that his son was a lazy third-rated artist at best and his daughter a listless B-actress in Europe or so he thought (though he hadn't really kept up with the Shay siblings in the last few years), but he didn't appreciate the former flyer doing the same with Jade to sabotage his influence. They were both stubborn people, though he liked to consider himself more flattering 'strong-willed', and would lead credence to them being father and daughter, but he was not eager to get into an argument with her and spoil his evening. "Let me reassure you that we are not doing that. We already had our Valentine celebration while you were out. We're spending the evening as a family."

"Good, he shouldn't have to be… distracted or placed with someone else. It's not fair to either of you."

The coming accusation he was expecting didn't materialize and threw him for a moment. He gathered his wits about him and answered, "You would have interrupted your evening to babysit Ian?"

"I wouldn't see it as babysitting, but yes, if you needed the time to enjoy alone, I'd be willing to watch Ian for the evening."

She saw in her father's eyes that he was slightly taken aback by the offer then realized he shouldn't have been so slow in grasping that she was willing to do such a thing. It still amazed him at times how much that his daughter had bonded with his stepson. He assured her, "Well that won't be necessary. As I said, we will be spending the evening together. Happy Valentine's Day Jade."

"Happy Valentine's Day Dad," Jade forced a pleasant tone into her voice.

Mister West slightly smiled to his daughter and closed the door.

Jade's shoulders slumped, feeling a bit hollow that the wishing a good holiday between them wasn't genuine. She refused the dwell on it and really didn't want to see Freddie's sympathetic expression. She took Freddie's hand and turned away to lead him back to his black muscle car.

* * *

Author's Note: Okay, one last chapter to go. I hope you enjoyed Freddie's first half of celebrating Valentine's Day with his sweetheart. Let's just see how he pulls off the rest of the night.  
Guest starring Bridgit Mendler as Rose  
Guest starring Mia Talerico as Grace


	4. Chapter 4

Hello readers. I hope you've had a nice week and that you'll enjoy this update.

This is the first update of any story since the news of Leonard Nimoy's passing. We lost someone great on Friday. May we all live long and prosper.

Fanfic-Reader-88: It certainly was different, but Freddie was looking at the deeper meaning of love and the holiday as a whole. Telling Ian not to worry could have caused a time paradox, but these stories are walking that tightrope of it happening.

Twilight Warrior 627: Valentine's Day should be sweet as it is sexy. The title and theme of WAMB is meant to apply to multiple characters and relationships (which I'm hoping to get an update to that in the next few days). It is a juggling act to try to keep them consistent across the board, but it is fun. Thanks.

seddieloverfan12: I hope you like this chapter. Thanks.

Challenge King: Freddie has a big heart and I thought he never really got to express that without always getting some backlash from someone or it being returned. L.A. in that sense has turned out to have the greener pasture.

I want to add an additional warning with my usual rating. This chapter is really pushing the T rating for Adult Situations and under FF's rules, technically maybe M, but nothing particularly graphic.

Rating: +T Adult Situations

Special Guest Appearance by Jennifer Connelly as Ruby Lynn West  
Special Guest Appearance by Joe Flannigan as Col. Steven 'Loco' Shay

* * *

Chapter 4

West Residence  
Los Angeles, CA  
Saturday, February 12, 2015

Jade was the first through the door into the kitchen in the mid-afternoon and saw that back of her mother pouring herself some ice tea at the kitchen island. The usual sharp dressed business woman was in just a long sleeved v-neck shirt and jeans for the afternoon.

Mrs. West looked over her shoulder to see her daughter and future son-in-law. "Hey sweetie, enjoy your day?"

Jade walked around her mother, leaving a kiss on her cheek in her wake, to the other side of the island towards the cabinet to grab a glass to get a drink, "Yeah, it's been a great day."

The West Matriarch directed a sly glance to Freddie as he hung up his keys on the key rack and commented, "I'm glad. A girl needs to be treated on Valentine's Day."

Freddie walked around the island to get behind Jade just as she was grabbing the pitcher to pour herself some tea. He kissed her right cheek from behind and teased, "I'm hoping it will be better before midnight."

Colonel Shay called out from the living room, apparently over hearing the comment, "What about treating us guys for Valentine's Day?"

Mrs. West slightly leaned to her right to look around Jade and Freddie into the living room, a smirk playing on her lips. "If you treat the girl, she's definitely going to treat you before the night's over."

Shay chuckled from his seat on the couch and muttered, "Some things never change…"

Mrs. West ignored her longtime friend and asked the early twenty-somethings, "So you have plans for tonight?"

Jade turned her head to meet Freddie's eyes, assuming the answer would be yes, but was curious to what he could still have in mind for the rest of the day.

The brown eyed young man easily answered, "Oh yes I do."

The dark haired performer teased, "Care to share them?"

"Regretfully, I do have to spoil it a little so you can plan properly. I was planning for us to dine-in and I was going to cook you a fantastic dinner… then give you the rest of your gifts."

The mistress of the home grinned. "Good, because Steven and I are going out tonight."

Jade playfully questioned, "Planning to come home?"

The older and just as lovely West grinned, easily as coy as her daughter, "Should I?"

Jade looked over her shoulder to her future husband as she answered her mother, "It wouldn't be too inconvenient if you didn't come back until sun up?"

Freddie pursed his lips and immediately formed a healthy flush on his face.

The lovely raven haired mother smile became a near face splitting grin while she casually answered, "I think I can persuade Steven to extend our evening to let you two enjoy your evening."

The former fighter pilot called out from the living room, referring to himself in the third person, "Persuade Steven to do what?"

Ruby raised an eyebrow and a teasing corner of his mouth and nonchalantly remarked, "Oh nothing…"

In knowing the woman for more than forty years told Shay that it wasn't just 'nothing'. However, he could only wait and see what the beautifully devious woman had in store for him.

Jade's eyebrow flicked up and continued in jest, "I just hope you're _careful_ during the night."

The mother's coy smile faded to a look of mild confusion then to an appearance of uneasiness.

The couple noticed the change in her demeanor in an instant. Jade was about to say something, but her mother took a sip from her drink and walked around the island to head back to the living room.

Jade looked to Freddie, silently asking what she had done. He looked just as lost for an explanation. She pulled away and walked to the threshold between the kitchen and living room.

She saw her mother slip back onto the couch, take another sip from her drink then placed the glass on the end of the coffee table before she snuggled up to Shay's right. He naturally wrapped his arm around her and placed a kiss on her forehead. An unseen smile to Jade formed on Ruby face as she snuggled up to the man she had known and loved since she was seven.

The former officer had his feet propped up on the coffee table with a PearBook on his lap. "So cupcake, how's the city of love treating you on this Valentine's Day?"

On the other side of the globe through the computer, Carly's voice could be heard answering her father from the webchat.

* * *

Over the course of the rest of the afternoon, Mrs. West had spent her time with the former flyer doing really nothing but enjoy each other's company and denying Jade the opportunity to figure out why her mother had apparently gotten so upset with her joke. Her mother really couldn't be described as a 'prude' and she was teasing about what activities Jade and Freddie could be up to that night, so she didn't think her joke was necessarily crude or offensive.

Jade finally got her opportunity to talk with her mother as the time was approaching seven that evening and the matriarch was getting ready in her room. She approached the entrance of the room and softly knocked on the door. "Hey."

Mrs. West was standing in front of the full length mirror, checking her appearance in her black lace and bouclé dress. She looked into the mirror to meet her daughter's gaze behind her and replied, "Hey."

Jade glanced to the floor and muttered, "Mom, I'm sorry."

Mrs. West turned from her mirror and looked to her daughter with an expression of confusion. "For what dear?"

"For what I said that upset you back in the kitchen. I didn't mean to be… too personal… too crude."

The raven haired beauty lovingly smiled and reassured her daughter, "It's alright. There's nothing to be sorry for."

"Then why did you get upset? Freddie and I saw the look on your face and you were quick to escape the kitchen."

The older West slightly tilted he head to the side and countered, "Lynns don't run away, we just… tactically withdraw."

Her mother's explanation sounded as if it came straight out of Jade's grandfather's mouth. "Then why did you make a 'tactically withdrawal'?"

The dark haired business woman glanced to the floor and took a few steps to have a seat on the edge of her bed. She forced a smile and answered, "It hit a sore spot."

Jade took a seat next to her mother and gave her a perplexed look. "I don't understand."

Ruby West took a deep breath then slowly let it out to explain, "I haven't really seen the need to talk about it, but… I hit menopause a few months ago, so… I couldn't get pregnant even if I want to—you know, short of hormone therapy and all those fertility treatments. I know it was just a joke with me and Steven, but it made me think about my age… more years behind me than in front of me and what's now out of reach."

Jade's stomach sank, the joy of today leaving her faster than a gust of wind blowing away leaves. "I'm sorry."

Ruby smiled to her daughter, one filled with hard earned wisdom. "It's okay. It's just part of life. We grow up… and we grow old… if we're fortunate."

Jade didn't like to think about that line of thought. If anyone really paid attention to her old Slap page videos, they would know that she was feared death despite having a morbid fascination with it… having witnessed her own death in a future that could have been drove home the point. She didn't like thinking about her own mortality and she still had her whole life ahead of her with Freddie, but thinking about her mother's mortality was a scarier thought.

The twenty year old cleared her throat and cautiously asked, "Is that the only reason? Knowing that's no longer a possibility for you or… did you want to have another child… with the Colonel after you got married?"

The raven haired beauty paused, looking as if the thought really hadn't occurred to her about having children with Shay. She actually laughed for a moment, throwing Jade completely off with the reaction. "At my age, I never gave it much thought about us having children. We have you, Carly and Spencer. You're our children. Our relationship isn't like yours and Freddie's or any of your friend's parents' relationship, so I don't think children would come into play." She glanced away and looked as if she was forcing a smile. "Besides, it's a moot point. I'm getting too old… we're getting too old to start over and we'll… we'll be too busy for the next two years then… maybe the next four years."

Her mother and the Colonel's relationship wasn't traditional. They love each other, very deeply and true and were very happy with one another, but they weren't 'in' love with one another. Maybe they were and they wouldn't admit it to themselves, perhaps due to the passage of time or perhaps the ghost of Mrs. Shay haunted them both. It was hard to say, but she didn't have time to rehash that in her head.

"Mom, I don't care about that and I'm sure as hell know he wouldn't care. Have you talked to him about this?"

The older West cracked a smile and countered, "Jade, I just said I really hadn't thought about it, so no, I haven't talked to him about it. I never thought we would ever get together, least long getting married. Having another child has been the last thing on my mind."

"Okay, fair enough. You getting together wasn't exactly expected, so thinking about children wouldn't be the first thing on your mind, but… you know we know somebody that could fix that if you wanted. I should be dead or worst, but I'm here. I think you would deserve to get a little miracle."

Mrs. West gave her daughter a contemplating expression then cautiously remarked, "It's something to think about, but I'm not sure if I want to be Sarah."

Jade slightly parted her lips and slightly furled her brow, unsure of the reference.

The head of the household stood up and motioned for her door. "I need to finish getting ready and I'm sure you need to get ready for your night with Freddie, so off you go."

Jade sighed and stood up, acknowledging that the conversation was over for the moment, however, she would get the last word. She stopped at the door and slightly turned to look over her left shoulder. "Mom… I know I can speak for Carly and Spencer too… I wouldn't mind having another sibling."

Ruby half smirked and pointed out the door. "Go."

Jade laughed while she exited the room while the older West shook her head, knowing exactly where her daughter got the attitude.

* * *

A few minutes after Jade left her mother's room, Shay was patiently waiting in the kitchen, dressed in dark blue suit and white dress shirt, but missing the tie. Freddie and Jade were with him, ready to see them off.

Freddie curiously asked, knowing the dress code to the restaurant that his future stepfather-in-law was taking his future mother-in-law, "Are you sure you don't need a tie?"

"I have one in my pocket and I'll throw it on if I have to, but I think I look pretty good this way."

"At least you're not missing any self-confidence," Jade verbally poked.

"No, I have plenty of that to spare."

A black dressed figure caught the edge of the former Air Force officer's eye and he turned to see Mrs. West strutting over to them. "Well doesn't someone look gorgeous?"

Ruby smiled while approaching him and stopped just in front of her lifelong friend. She brushed a hand over the left breast of the dress blazer. She teasingly mocked, "You don't look too bad yourself, though you could use a shave."

He playfully threw up an eyebrow and questioned, "You're not digging the five o'clock shadow look?"

"It does make it harder for me to kiss you." She completely ignored her own words and planted a kiss on his lips.

Freddie glanced to Jade with a grin on his face.

Shay grinned into the kiss then once she pulled away, he lazily remarked, "That's right."

Jade took a step towards them and shooed them away with her hands, "Okay, save the kissing for later. You have a reservation and you can't be late."

"Sounds like to me that you just want the house to yourselves," the older West was quick to counter with a smirk on her face.

"I won't deny that, but I'm right."

"Right…" her mother answered as Shay helped her put on her coat.

They older couple turned and headed for the door with Shay waving back and laughed, "I'll try to bring her home before curfew."

Ruby playfully warned, "You better not."

The former flyer just laughed and opened the door to the garage for her before they exited the kitchen.

Jade waved and called out, "Bye, love you."

Ruby answered back, "Bye."

As the door closed behind the older couple, Freddie looked to his love and motioned her out of the kitchen. "I need you to shoo so I can have the kitchen and you can get ready. Dinner will be ready by eight, so don't be late."

She kissed his cheek and overdramatically replied, "Fiiinnee, I'll get ready." She trotted towards the stairs and winked over her shoulder before heading up them, drawing a smile from the man she planned to spend the rest of her life.

* * *

The time was approaching eight in the evening as Jade was wrapping up getting ready for the dinner Freddie was preparing for them. She looked herself in the mirror and smiled at her appearance. She wore a form fitting spaghetti strap black top that reached past her hips and flared out a quarter down her thighs which allowed her to show off her shoulders, upper chest (that wasn't covered by her dark curly hair) and a fair amount of cleavage. The lower half of her outfit consisted of a pair of pants with the first half to her knees being black leather and black embroidered lace that reached her ankles that could be mistaken for an ankle length skirt. Her outfit was finished with a pair of open-toe heels.

Jade thought she would turn his head tonight and that was her intention. She looked over to the foot of her bed to see the bags that contained Freddie's Valentine gifts.

After all the paperwork of buying the home on Thursday, she did some shopping of her own. There were two bags, one being a plan bag holding Freddie's secondary gift, something physical and tangible, while the other one was the main present in a high quality pink shopping bag with the words 'Victoria Secret' printed on the side. Obviously the item inside that bag wasn't something she was going to hand him, but…

Once the internationally recognized musician and actress was satisfied with her appearance, she turned away from the mirror and walked down the stairs. She was halfway down the stairs when she spotted Freddie standing at the foot of the stairs. He was dressed sharply with a blazer jacket, a dress shirt and blue jeans.

He smile and just gazed at her, his breath begin taken from him. He was able to gather enough to sweetly greet her, "Hello."

A playful little smile danced on her face and she answered in a sweet tone that only her closest friends have heard, "Hi."

She finished walking down the stairs and he offered his arm to her. She graciously accepted and gave him a quick peck on the cheek.

He led her to the dining room table instead of them heading for the door to the garage as planned. Since her mother and future stepfather would be out for the evening, it would leave the house to themselves. She didn't mind at all staying in for the evening as she got to spend uninterrupted time with her fiancé, be treated to his cooking and allow her to give him a very special Valentine's Day present without distraction.

He stopped at end of the dining room's long table and pulled out the seat on the right side of table from the perspective of the end of the table to the kitchen. The end of the table was prepared with a rectangular tablecloth draped over on end to indicate that they would be sitting across from one another. The scene was complete with a small bouquet of flowers in the center, a silver candle stick holder with several candles lit and the silverware already placed.

She took her seat and he whispered, "I'll be right back."

As cold and distance as she could sometimes appear, something which had greatly reduced over the years since her graduation, she did enjoy the romantic gesture of a candle lit dinner.

Freddie returned in only a few moments and placed a plate in front of her of a Mediterranean Salad with seasoned chicken and set a set a glass of ice tea. He turned to return to the kitchen then came back several seconds later with his own plate and drink to take the seat across from her.

Jade laughed just above the sound of a whisper, "You're really treating me today."

He held up his glass of ice tea and answered, "I'm just trying to show you how much you mean to me."

"I know how much I mean to you, I just hope you know how much you mean to me."

He put on his charming smile and casually answered, "I figured if you've put up with my geeky ways for this long, then I'm pretty safe."

She beamed a smile and bowed her head. He was right in many ways as in the first glance of them, they really shouldn't have fit together. She was the dark, sometimes described as gothic, morbid girl with a quick temper (something that had eased up over the years) and pretty abrasive personality while he was the typical boy-next-door with his head in plenty of nerdy and geeky things. They shouldn't have fit, but they did, drawing strength from their surprising commonality and balancing out their weakness.

They began on their meal and started chatting about lighter stuff, setting aside any heavier issues that could weigh on them such as her actually buying their future home and about changing their original wedding date. He mentioned that his classes were still going well and didn't feel any real pressure with them. He mentioned that his sister may want to visit during her spring break in a few weeks and he was looking forward to it. Jade in turn talked about she was looking over some scripts for some minor appearances in movies and television, but was going to take the majority of her time between now and the summer to wrap up her third album and possibly do a short two month tour during the summer.

While Freddie finished the last bite of his chicken, he asked, "So, did you enjoy today?"

Jade took a sip from her drink to wash down her last bite and blissfully answered, "Absolutely. It certainly was an unexpected one."

"So you really didn't mind turning our day out into kind of a 'family day out'?"

She answered while setting her glass down, "No, I don't. What made you think of doing that though?"

"As I told Ian, this doesn't necessarily have to be a day about just your romantic feelings. I know how much you love him—I know if things had spiral out of control between you and your dad and stepmother a few years ago… we'd be raising Ian right now—so it seemed natural for you to get a chance to spend time with the ones you love."

She slightly tilted her chin down to look at her empty plate. "We wouldn't have won that fight."

He flashed her a grin that melted a lot of girls' hearts that would never get a chance with him and answered, "Don't underestimate yourself Jade West. You were willing to kill Fate herself, a court case would have been a breeze in comparison."

Jade didn't look so sure, recalling memories that haunted her when things had deteriorated to a dark point between her and Ian's mother.

Freddie reached over and cupped over her hand. "We would have won and you would have been a fantastic mother to him… you are a fantastic mother to him. Don't doubt that for one moment."

She lifted her chin and met his confident eyes, showing no doubt of his words. She had her doubts on such a thing, but she didn't doubt that over the years she had grown to love the one that in practically replaced her in hr father's heart. She didn't trust herself to speak and could only mouth, "Thank you."

He continued to smile in support of her and asked, "Okay, now that has been established, are you ready for dessert?"

Jade's face lit up, glad they could turn away from heavier issues.

Freddie wiped his mouth with his napkin then stood up to head for the kitchen.

The talented musician patiently waited, taking the last few sips of her tea.

The college junior returned with their desserts of vanilla ice cream topped with fudge and a cherry and surrounded by strings of chocolate.

She immediately gathered some ice cream and some of the fudge on her spoon then brought it to her lips. She closed lipped smiled to him at tasting the familiar, but quite satisfying taste.

"Simplicity at its finest," Freddie remarked before taking his spoon and dipping into his dessert.

The couple continued their desserts, idly chatting about nothing important. They chatted about Cat's tour that was going to start in about two weeks with a brief mention that even Jade found it cute that Cat included Robbie with her at the end of her last music video. Freddie found he felt obligated to point out some of the problems with the premise of the video from a scientific standpoint about a comet over L.A., but tried not to spoil the meaning of the video.

They turned to the topic of television shows and movies, nothing that Jade was interested in perhaps auditioning for role, but observations. They threw around theories about future plot developments of Tori's show on MTV since she refused to spoil anything about the show.

Once they finished their ice cream, Freddie stood up and picked up the bowls. "I'm happy that you like the dessert, but that isn't the last treat for you today."

"I loved the breakfast in bed, new nose-stud and the day was unexpected, but I've loved it. I'm happy, you're happy, Ian's happy… my parents are happy, so you really didn't have to get me anything else."

"I'm glad you feel that way, but I'm smart enough to know when a lady says that, it really is code for 'you better get me something nice' or I'm going to be very upset."

She smirked and playfully mocked him, "I didn't realize my cynicism rubbed off on you."

"It's isn't cynicism, just good old fashion common sense."

"Okay, fine. What is my last gift?"

"Before I get it, I do have to warn you, it might be a little… shocking and I think this present will make it an unforgettable day… which makes it impossible to top this next year."

"Wow, you're that confident about this gift?"

"Yes I am. I'll be right back."

Jade followed him with her eyes as he headed to the kitchen to put away the bowls in the sink then pick something up from the kitchen island. He returned carrying a new model of PearPad, a rectangular one that was nearly transparent, and a manila envelope. He took a seat at the end of the table to sit cattycorner to her.

The muscles tightened around Jade's eyes and lips while glancing to the PearPad. "You got me a PearPad?"

"No, I have something on the PearPad that I want to show you."

She flicked an eyebrow up, teasing him while intrigued with what he had to show her. "You made me a video? Breaking out those creative talents of yours."

"Kinda. I did make you a video… one you will not believe—at least at first, but you need to know that this isn't a joke. I'm not playing a joke on you and this isn't a gag gift."

Jade slightly turned her head and eyes slightly narrowed at studying Freddie's face. He was solemn with a hint of fear in his eyes as if she wouldn't believe him. She dipped her chin slightly in a barely perceived nod and answered, "Okay. It's not a joke. I won't get mad. I'll take this serious."

He sat the PearPad on the table then carefully pulled out a folded piece of construction paper from a manila envelope then dropped the envelope on the pad. He handed her the card.

The blue eye singer laughed at the childish and unexpected absurdity of the card. "You made me a Valentine's Day card?"

"No, someone else. Just read it."

His expression and voice was still somber, causing her further curiosity. She opened the card and read what was clearly a child's message, but quite sweet. As she read, she thought it was simply from Ian if it was just a tad bit too childish to have come from him, but when she read the signature and the date, the humor turned into shock: Sapphire, Valentine's Day 2022.

She looked up from the card, but before she could question him, he held up the rectangular PearPad and started playing a video:

A male teenager with a slightly muscular build with messy front brunette hair was sitting on a couch with a child sitting on his lap. Jade guessed that she was four or five years old at most with mostly straight brown hair with pale skin and blue eyes. She instinctively recognized the unknown pair despite never having met—or so she thought—either of them. Her brain went into overdrive in realizing that something was familiar with both of them.

The teenager started off with a smile, _"Okay Sis, your brilliant husband wanted us to record you Valentine message. I hope you have a fantastic Valentine's Day…"_ He grinned teasingly as he finished, _"…and we might be celebrating a little brother or sister for Sapphire by Thanksgiving."_

The child turned her head and up to give the teenager a curious gaze. _"Why would mommy have a baby on Thanksgiving?"_

Ian shrugged and suggested, _"Early Christmas present from the stork?"_

_"Stork?"_ She looked to her father and questioned, _"I thought angels brought babies?"_

The onetime cameraman awkwardly chuckled from the background that Jade recognized as Freddie's voice, _"They kind of do… I'll have your mom explain it to you when you're older."_

The answer left the girl a little perplexed, but she accepted the answer.

The teenager's expression turned serious and finished, _"Thanks for always being there for me… I love you Sis."_

Sapphire eagerly spoke with a wave, _"Hi mommy. I love you. I want you to have the bestest Valentine's Day ever! I can't wait to give you your present!"_

The pair waved at the phone and shouted, _"We love you."_

Ira hopped into the frame and barked a few times.

The video ended and Jade remained staring at the screen. Freddie brushed his fingers over the screen to bring up a picture of Ian and Sapphire sitting together. Jade breathlessly asked him while gazing at the picture, "Freddie?"

"What you just saw is real. That is Ian and that is Sapphire… our daughter. I spent the last week, especially Thursday, trying to wrap my head around trying to figure out a present for you. I looked through the entire mall, hoping that something would catch my eye, but I couldn't find anything to show you how much I love you."

Jade covered her mouth and blinked several times while she felt her eyes started watering. She swallowed, still trying to take in the fact that she was looking at a picture of her unborn child and Ian several years older. She muttered on autopilot, "You said you found me something when I called you?"

He grinned, thankful that he had stunned her with happy silence. "I was kind of stalling. I couldn't think of one thing to get you—I mean, something meaningful besides flowers or candy or some jewelry—that would expression how much I still love you. Someone apparently heard my distress and showed up to help me."

She finally looked away from the pad and asked, "Anna visited you?"

"No, ah… ah cupid showed up. He pretended to be a jewelry sale's clerk while I was looking for something for you before you called to meet at our future house."

"A cupid?"

"Yeah. They really are real. I took a little trip that day to the future and I met Sapphire and Ian. I know you would have loved to have seen them, so I did the next best thing and had them record a message for you."

She attempted to clear her throat several times, so overcome with emotion, then asked, "So this is real? What I saw really happened?"

"Yes, that's Ian at fifteen and that's Sapphire, our daughter and that doesn't capture how beautiful she is."

He sat the PearPad down and scooted the chair closer to her to take one of her hands.

She surprised him by throwing her arms around him and pulling him close, practically planting her face against the side of his neck.

He embraced her in return and ran a hand up and down her back. "I know. I can hardly believe it myself. She's real. She has your beautiful eyes and smile. She's smart and… she loves her scissors. I just wish I could have done more than bring you a video and picture and let you hold her like I got the chance."

She lifted her face up and crashed her lips against his lips, pouring her feelings into his mouth.

He smiled into the kiss, feeling the same nearly overwhelming feelings at the prospect of their daughter.

Jade pulled her pink lips away and breathed against his cheek, "Thank you. She's real… our little girl is real."

Freddie breathed out in an equally soft and warm breath, "Yes she is."

Jade stood up and slipped onto his lap and wrapped her arms behind his neck. She kissed him and pulled him tighter to herself, deepening the kiss as he wrapped his arms around her. He allowed his left hand rub up and down her leather covered thigh while his other hand held her hip.

After what seemed like an eternity without breath, she pulled away and rested her forehead against his forehead. She took several deep breaths before muttering, "Do you know her birthday?"

"Yeah, I was able to look it up while helping her make your card. A kid of a celebrity's birthday is public information. Why do you want to know?"

She wickedly grin as she teased, "Well, we need to know when…" Her grin grew bigger as she let her left fingertip trail down his chest. "…when we need to conceive her."

Freddie had to take several seconds to process of what that meant then uttered with a raised brow, "Oh…"

"Is it tonight?"

The college junior did a quick calculation in his head and whispered in surprise disappoint, "No…"

Jade kissed away his frown and lovingly reassured him with a stroke of his cheeks. "Okay, but don't you dare forget that date, but in the meantime, it doesn't mean we can't have a little loving."

Freddie smirked, agreeing with her sentiment, "No it doesn't."

She stood up and took his hand then gently pulled him to follow her. He paused only a moment to turn to the candles and blow them out. He felt the strong tug on his hand and she led him out of the dining room and towards the stairs.

They stopped at her room, simply because hers was before his down the hallway. She led him inside then turned to let her delicate fingers took the collar of his jacket and pulled it over his shoulders. She tossed the jacket idly away, not caring if it became wrinkled in the process.

While her fingers went to unbutton his shirt, he distracted her with kisses down her smooth and delicate shoulder, stopping only a moment to pull over the thin spaghetti strap of her top to continue kissing across her skin. He pulled the thin strip over her shoulder to kiss along her porcelain skin to reach the curve of her shoulder. He peppered it with several kisses before moving back up to his neck.

She lulled her head to the side and sighed as she undid the last button on his shirt. Her breath shortened and her mind started to cloud from the haze of love and lust. She was able to utter before her mind could become further clouded, "I did have a plan for tonight… another present for you."

He smiled and whispered against her skin, "Oh, and what's that?"

She kissed his cheek just in front of his left ear, "I went shopping… at Victoria Secrets."

Freddie's brow rose as his mind started imagining all the possibilities of sexy wear she could have bought. He set aside any fantasies that could start and focused on the reality in his arms. He captured her lips for a deep kiss then pulled away to steal some of her breath. He huff against her pink lips, "As much as I would love to see what you got me, we have all night."

"And we—we have tomorrow morning," she kissed into his mouth.

She pulled his dress shirt off his shoulders and tossed that away, leaving him in his under athletic shirt. She dive her mouth to the bare skin just above the neck of his shirt and under his neck, placing gentle pecks and moving up until she reached the left side of his neck. She bared her teeth and playfully nipped at his skin, but careful not to break his skin.

Freddie laughed, "Wanting to suck my blood?"

She grinned across his pink skin and muttered, "You're the one that's dressed up as a vampire Mister Fredward Cullen."

His hands moved up and down her back and laughed, "Oh I know you like it even if it's goofy."

The blue eyed singer laughed, unable to argue against his point. "I guess you would be my vampire boyfriend."

He tilted his chin down to meet her eyes. "I don't see you as any Bella or Idiot Farm Girl, but someone strong and fierce… maybe you're a Buffy?"

She looked up to him with a look of a predator and whispered, "Nope, if I wasn't your dark lady of the night, I'd definitely be your Faith."

Freddie chuckled, glad she got the reference then kissed her forehead before resuming their lip locking. They finally reached Jade's bed and she leaned backwards to rest on it and he traveled his lips further down, pulling her top down to expose more of skin for his lips to kiss. He kissed over her heart and turned his eyes up to look into her blue one, pulling a trick he had done to her several times to symbolically trying to pour his love directly into her heart.

The dark brunette playfully smiled, acknowledging that she understood his meaning.

He traveled further down her smooth skin and pulled more of the material of the shirt down, exposing her breast. He left butterfly kisses all long her flesh and inhaling her natural scent that caused his hormones to flare and drive him to make her happy. After peppering every spot with a few licks over her center, he kissed along her sternum and repeated the process on the other one, drawing out approving moans past Jade's lips.

She cupped the back of his head and massaged his scalp with her fingertips, the tips of her nails threatening to dig into his skin as he continued giving her pleasure. Her breaths became shallower and she felt the heat on her cheeks. "Freddie…"

He left a trail of kiss down between her valley and moved towards her stomach to reach the bunched material of her shirt. He pulled away and gripped her sides to help her sit up. She took hold of her shirt and lifted it up and over her head then tossed it away.

Jade's arms flew back around Freddie's neck and pulled him into a hard kiss while his hands ran across her smooth back. His fingertips danced up her spine, recalling what he wanted to do after the first time they made love during their summer together when they found each other again. One hand eventually reached her locks and rand her fingers through them to cup the back of her head.

He groaned and she moaned as their tongues became reacquainted and dueled, neither giving way. They 'battled' this way for perhaps several minutes, causing their blood to flow and still each other's breath until Freddie broke away to kiss along her jaw line. He brushed his lips down her skin until he reached over her jugular. He licked and teased, feeding into her playful fantasy and fascination of vampirism.

Freddie lips started their journey downward again, passing over her collarbone, down the left side of her chest to place a few more kisses over her heart. His lips trailed playfully across her soft curves, flicking his tongue out at any sign of goose bumps and having another taste of his love.

Jade smiled and moaned at the attentive attention to her flesh, finding the sensation tingling throughout out her upper body. She brushed over his head, allowing her fingers to mess up his neatly combed hair, to thank and encourage his actions.

Freddie's mouth finally left her chest and reached her upper abdomen and kissed zigzag across her skin. He took his sweet time, driving the rock star further on edge and want for his affection.

He nuzzled the tip of his nose against her bellybutton, teasing her again before continuing his journey. He reached the waistband of her pants and unbuttoned them, slowly opening the fly to expose the black material of her panties and her aroma. Once opened, he gently took the material of her pants by his fingers to pull it over her hips.

Jade grinned at feeling his strong hands move down the sides of her legs while pulling her pants down. He reached her ankles and she lifted her legs to help him take them off after slipping off her shoes. He tossed the pants towards her burgundy chair and the shoes to the floor.

He took a second to admire the beauty lying in front of him, only clad in her black panties that contrast lovely against her near porcelain skin, which was something he didn't see as often as many may have believed.

She smiled a temptress smile, teasing him and bringing a finger up and curling it as a hook, promising with just a look to fulfill both their desires.

Freddie took a second to pull his undershirt from the waistband of his jeans and pulled it up and off his body to toss it away. He crawled back up the bed on his knees to move back to her. He ran the palms of his hands up and down the top of her thighs, gently massaging her legs and driving back the very goose bumps that his actions were causing. He placed a kiss on her right knee then slowly trailed up her smooth limb. He kept his eyes focused on her eyes, trying to convey with a look and deed of his attention to her.

The college junior reached her right hip and kissed all around the band of her panties, teasing so the skin underneath would miss out of his affection and subconsciously scream to her to be touched. After teasing her long enough in that spot, Freddie shifted so he could start making a slow and arching trail along her side and over her smooth abdomen then down towards her navel.

He smiled against her skin before he poked his tongue out to dip into and tease her bellybutton, something adorably cute amidst the canvas of her pale skin. The action sent a shiver through his angel and caused laughter to escape her lips, playful and joyful to expose that sweetness she kept hidden inside most of the time, "Freddie?!"

The brown eyed boy just smiled to his love and let his lips continue to trail down her lower abdomen until he kissed just beyond the elastic band of her panties, treating the skin to the attention he thought it deserved. His fingers hooked over the band and gently pulled them over her hips, kissing his way down with every millimeter of skin until he pulled far enough to show her world to him. He pulled at the moment the offensive material that separated them down her legs. She pulled her knees up to let him take them off her ankles and tossed them away.

Jade straightened her legs back out on the bed and Freddie kissed at the joint of her leg to her hip, trailing up and down before moving back to her center.

Jade slumped back against the pillows and mattress, staring up at the ceiling as she surrendered into the feelings that he started giving to her. Her nerves started becoming electrified underneath her heated skin and her breath became even shallower with her chest rising and falling the same way as when she poured her heart and body into a performance on stage. Her left hand palmed over the crown of his head, having something to hold and encourage him. She whimpered as she started loosing focus on the ceiling, "Fr-Fre-Fredward…"

Freddie smiled against her world at hearing her caress his full name, knowing that he was doing a fine job in pleasing his love. He continued his tender ministrations with his tongue and rubbing his hands up and down the top of her thighs.

Her hips started pushing forward, wanting more of his touch from his mouth, which he was eager to give her. He moved his left hand up and found her right hand desperately grasping for anything. He laced his fingers with her, reassuring her that he was not just giving her pleasure, but he was there every step of the way in her pleasure.

She squeezed his hand, thankful for not only his physical, but emotional presence as she started purring and moaning deeper as she approached her finish, "Freddieee, Fre-Fredddd-Freddieeee…"

The next moment, her world faded into white bliss.

Maestro's Restaurant  
Hollywood, CA

Ruby and Shay sat across one another at the high class restaurant and just starting on their deserts of chocolate cake. They had shared small talk throughout the meal and evening, but the Colonel could easily sense that something was troubling his longtime friend.

After taking a sip from his tea, Shay cautiously asked, "You've seen distracted all night; what's wrong?"

Ruby looked up from her cake, midway through chewing a piece of it.

Shay saw the look of surprise in them as if he had caught her unawares.

The dark haired beauty finished the piece of desert in her mouth and debated whether she should be honest, not wanting to potentially spoil their evening. She decided to go ahead with the truth as stalling wouldn't do anything good as he wouldn't have let it go. She sighed and answered, "Jade and I had a conversation before we left and it got me thinking."

"About what?"

The dark haired woman spoke in a deliberate tone, as if recalling dry facts yet a hint of tribulation, "We know how the next few years are going to play out for us. We're going to get married, gruel through a campaign and maybe end up in the White House."

Shay threw on an impassive expression, one honed over the years to not give away any emotion, but knew Ruby would easily be able to see right threw it. He asked in a flat voice, "Have you changed your mind?"

She reassuringly smiled and answered sweetly, "No, I'm still going to marry you. You're not getting rid of me that easy flyboy."

"What is it then? Do you want to postpone the wedding until after the campaign?" He wasn't thrilled with the idea as that would put off their nuptials for nearly another two years. "Do you not want me to run?

"No, we'll get married when we get the opportunity, it's that… I never gave it much thought until today, but… with our marriage, do you want us to have children?"

Shay eyes flew open, completely caught off-guard by the question. He remained that way for several more seconds, trying to get the concept around in his head. "I… I never thought about it. I never thought about having any other after Carly… it was a miracle just to have her. About us having children… wow…"

"I hadn't given it much thought either, but…"

The combat veteran remained flabbergasted, "Do you want to have children?"

Ruby took interest in her dessert and poked it with

"I don't know. I guess I wanted your opinion whether you wanted more, because it would take the two of us… and maybe more."

"More?"

She patiently smiled, forgetting sometimes that he could be slightly thick at times. "Steven, we're in our early fifties, not teenagers anymore. It wouldn't exactly be easy for us… for me."

They had taken their trip on the river of time, going along with the flow as every other being. He was in excellent shape and physical health. He didn't feel his age through the combination of what had to be good genes as his father was in his eighties and was able to do walking handstands and his own physical conditioning through the service. Ruby looked as beautiful as ever and could easily pass for someone ten years younger, but apparently things weren't the same underneath.

Shay reached over the table and took her hand. "Ruby, I'm sorry, but if you wanted one with me, we would find a way. There are… possibilities."

"But would you want another child?"

He turned to some deep contemplation over the idea about another child. His mind naturally led to the regrets with some things about raising his children, more so about Carly with Spencer doing most of the raising—one of the many reasons why he thought his son was a far better man than him—and not being there more for Ruby and Jade to have a more positive male influence in Jade's life. Would he make the same mistakes again with another child?

He grinned and stated his honest thought, "To have a child with the woman I love? That would be more of a blessing than I deserve."

Ruby's mood brightened, thinking that perhaps contemplating having another child was something to seriously consider for the future.

West Residence  
Los Angeles, CA

An hour or so later after Jade and Freddie were finished being intimate in their own way just short of doing what was necessary to conceive Sapphire or any other child, Jade was peacefully sleeping on her left side with the dark purple sheet pulled up with her right arm to cover her modesty despite having put on his white dress shirt and buttoning a few buttons of it. Her hair framed her face in a lovely fashion and rested on her shoulder, making her a very lovely sight to Freddie's eyes.

Freddie had grabbed a fitted T-shirt and boxers from a quick trip to his room and sat about nicely gathering Jade's discarded dress and other garments to rest across the back of and in her burgundy chair as he was unsure of how to hang up the dress. After neatly gathering up her clothing up, he took a moment to just watch her, appreciating these hard earned peaceful moments where they could forget about the world—her an internationally recognized musician and actress and the pressures of college—and drop all their emotional shields.

He thanked anyone that listened for being in this moment, being with someone that loved him just as much as he loved her and finding peace in what had been a pretty chaotic life.

Freddie wasn't entirely truthful with Jade that he had given her the last of her Valentine's Day presents. He left the room to get one last Valentine's Day for his love then returned less than a minute later. He walked back to Jade and gently kissed her forehead. He stood up and sat a framed picture of Sapphire and Ian on Jade's nightstand before gently crawling onto the bed and slipping behind to hold her close to him.

Jade slightly stirred from his contact and gentle embrace of his strong arms. "Freddie?"

He kissed her cheek and gently whispered, "It's okay. I was just joining you. Go back to sleep."

The dark haired singer thought about arguing, but his loving embrace felt just too good. As she drifted off back to sleep, she realized that she could treat give him the treat she planned tomorrow night and make it a Valentine's Weekend.

* * *

Author's Note: Okay, I hope you enjoyed this little story. I do have a short epilogue to this story in the next couple of days. Thank you for reading. Oh, Pear products have advanced since the ends of the respective shows and 'Who are My Brothers?' as I'm borrowing the advancement from Henry Danger.


	5. Epilogue

Hello dear readers. I hope the week has treated you well. This is a fairly short epilogue, but necessary one I believe and I hope you enjoy.

Note that I forgot to mention in the last chapter, Jade's outfit for the night was the same one as Elizabeth wore for past New Year's Eve.

Fanfic-Reader-88: A legend feels like an understatement to his contribution.

Due to the circumstances of what they've been through, they certainly have options that other people wouldn't have. Of course I'm touching on the idea about how easy it could to abuse such a thing in 'Who are My Brothers?'

A careful reading of the ratings guidelines for the site calls for such a warning. Jade and the vampire thing is obvious with the shirt, her disposition and a Slap video where she's upset people jumped on her vampire bandwagon, but the fact that Freddie dressed up as one that time just gives them another connection. There is a pic somewhere that shows that Liz actually kept the 'Bite Me' shirt after the show ended.

Twilight Warrior 627: I think I covered my thoughts about Mrs. West and the Colonel in my PM. You can't prove anything with the Colonel's involvement in certain classified military actions. Thanks and I hope you like this epilogue.

Challenge King: Them having a child would shake up things in the family dynamics between the Shays and Lynns.

Jonathan 81: I'm glad you're still reading. I think there are always threads to explore with these characters, plus there is always inspiration from what the actors/actresses are doing post iCarly/Victorious.

Rating: K

* * *

Epilogue

Benson Residence  
Beverly Park  
Beverly Hills, CA  
Saturday, February 12, 2022

Ian's brow was knotted and cheeks raised with tightened muscles around the eyes. He lifted his right pointer finger up and tried to comprehend what he was told by his brother-in-law and asked in a hasty voice, "So let me get this straight, that was you… from seven years ago?"

The houseguest and family member was sitting on the couch while Freddie sat in one of the other chairs in the room. Jade was upstairs with Sapphire to show her that the Valentine's Day card hadn't been lost during her father's 'magic trick' of being in two places at once.

Freddie calmly nodded his head and answered, "Yes, that was me. A little help from a cupid trying to help me figure out a Valentine's Day gift for your sister back in fifteen and I showed up here."

Ian threw his hands up and glanced down at the coffee table. "So I spent the last hour with 'you', but not 'you' without realizing it?"

"As I just told you, that was me, just a younger me." Freddie patted his cheek and remarked, "It's only been seven years. I've aged pretty well, so I don't look appreciably different."

The young West motioned towards Ira and stated, "Yeah, but you fooled Ira. He should have known."

Freddie glanced at Ian's longtime companion and pointed out, "Who said he didn't know it wasn't 'now' me? What point was he to bring it up since it was still me? It's not like I was going to be a threat to you or Sapphire."

The dog barked in agreement.

Ian looked to his dog and gave a scathing look and sarcastically remarked, "Thanks buddy."

If it was all possible the dog barked in such a way that one would think he was responding in as much a sarcastic manner.

The teenager looked to his stepbrother-in-law and asked, "So you time hopped because you couldn't figure out a present for Sis?"

Freddie helplessly shrugged his shoulders. "It was Nathaniel's idea. I couldn't think of anything to get her. I just knew that didn't want to get her something, just to get her something. The experience of knowing Sapphire before she was born was a fantastic gift for Jade. You being here when it happened was an incredible bonus. Unfortunately, you should have seen the Valentine's Day after it; she may have liked it, but I thought it was a serious letdown."

"So the message we just recorded and pictures was your way for her to know Sapphire before she was even conceived?"

"Since she missed out seeing her in person, getting a recording of you two was the next best thing then I realized to really set up the surprise, I included you on our day. I wanted Jade to feel loved and you definitely loved her at the time. I'm thinking about pulling the same trick again with Sapphire since Jade's been away on tour for so long. I think it seriously bothered her being away from her that long."

The brown messy haired teenager joked, "I wouldn't be brought along this time would I?"

Freddie cracked a grin and gently mocked, "I thought you would be too busy with your girlfriend that day… and you have school. I don't Sikowitz would mine you missing his class, but the others might have a fit."

"I was hoping to spend part of the day with Grace if I…" Ian realized the significance of seven Valentine's Day ago as it held special meaning to him. "…wait a sec, did you set me up with my girlfriend when I was seven?" He didn't wait for a reply as he stood up from his seat and started pacing in front of the couch. "Isn't that some kind of time paradox or something?"

"I've actually thought about that a few times. Jade originally buying this house could be a bootstrap-paradox, but then it depends if she really went to the future or it was a parallel universe she visited of us being apart and she was a pill popping rocker, but I don't think it is one for you and Grace. If you didn't like Grace in the first place, it probably could have been one, but you're the one that told us that you liked her after I came back. You developed those cute feelings for her before I said a thing."

Ian thought about his point for several seconds, trying to recall some details of that time. His memories weren't as sharp as Freddie or Jade's memories since he was seven at the time. However, another thought occurred to him and he accused, "You knew I was going to go into Hollywood Arts and things were going to go to chizz with me and my dad and I would be staying here, so why didn't you say anything?"

Freddie snorted out dismissively, "In that case, I was trying to avoid a paradox about you going Hollywood Arts. I said to you that day you didn't have to decide on anything. What was I going to say about your dad? Your dad's an asshole? The man has only gave ground once, just once that I can remember since I've known him when it came to you and that's when he knew if he didn't, that there would have been Hell to pay for it from me and the Colonel. I wasn't going to change his mind by saying anything differently than what I told him—which I wouldn't know what to have said differently since I don't know what I said in the first place—and I sure wasn't going to take his side on the matter."

Ian frowned and retook his seat on the couch. He loudly sighed, "And you didn't think about giving _me_ a heads up?"

"I didn't want to mess up this from happening. One thing already got changed from my visit here."

"And what was that?"

The doorbell rang out unexpectedly to interrupt Freddie from answering the question. The ring was an unusually occurrence at the household with the necessary security with Jade being such a recognizable star and being the stepdaughter of the President of the United States, so no one just walked up and rang the doorbell.

Freddie called out as he got up from his seat, "I got it."

He reached the door and took a quick peek into the peephole then opened the door. A blonde girl in her mid-teens with blue eyes and high cheekbones stood on the other side of the door, one all too familiar to the computer animator. He grinned at seeing her appearance and warmly greeted her, "Hello Grace."

"Hi Mister Benson. I'm here to see Ian."

Freddie looked over his shoulder and grinned to his stepbrother-in-law. "Well you're in luck. He's here. Ian, you have a very lovely young lady here to see you!"

Ira trotted to the teenage girl and happily barked at her arrival. Grace knelt down and cupped the sides of the dog's jaw to playfully ruffle it. "Hi Ira. It's good to see you." The dog tried to lick the girl's cheek, but she pulled away with a laugh then hugged the loyal companion of her boyfriend.

Ian grinned in a manner that could put Freddie or Beck to shame to impress the ladies as he approached his girlfriend. Grace noticed his smile while she pulled away from her hug and bashfully returned with one of her own with brushing some her blonde locks behind her right ear.

She stood up and timidly began, "Hey, I was hoping we could go out. Maybe get something to eat and see a movie? My dad's outside to take us to Green Meadow's Mall and can pick us up when we're done."

Ian could care less that it was Grace basically asking him out on a date. "I was watching Sapphire, but since Sis and Freddie are home, I would love to grab something to eat."

"That's great."

Ian looked to Freddie and hopefully asked, "Or I could borrow the keys to your car so we wouldn't have to bother him?"

Freddie wore smile so large that it threatened to pull a muscle as he calmly answered, "Not a chance in the world even if you had your license."

The leanly muscular teenager's shoulders slumped in disappointment and put on an equally matching look that resembled one Jade could wear.

The computer animator relented, "But, I guess I can play chauffeur to anywhere you need to go for the next few hours. I could hide for hours at the mall."

"Thanks Bro."

"Just let me tell your sister what's going on and I'll meet you in the garage."

"Right." Ian looked to Grace and took her hand and lacing his fingers with her fingers to the approval of the blonde. He led her through the multi-million dollar house towards the three car garage.

Freddie headed up the stairs and after reaching the landing, headed for the master bedroom. He stopped at the entrance of the bedroom to see his wife sitting on the edge of their bed with Sapphire sitting on her lap.

Jade held the card in front of her daughter and showed, "See, here's the card that you made for me."

The pale little girl looked at the card with a mix of confusion and disappointment. "But it was supposed to be a surprise."

Jade kissed the crown of her daughter's head and whispered, "It was the best surprise for Valentine's Day I could ever have."

"But it's not Aunt Cat's day yet?"

"No it's not, but…" Jade grinned as an idea came to mind. "I have a bedtime story I can tell you tonight explain how I got it as a Valentine's Day present, okay?"

Sapphire's eyes lit up, always enjoying listening to the stories her mother would tell her before bed. She looked to her father and pleaded, "Daddy, you have to tell me how you did that trick."

Freddie felt trapped for a moment as he never felt comfortable with even the little while lies and sugarcoating the truth to protect her innocence for as long as possible. "Oh, I'm going to leave that your mom and her bedtime story tonight."

Jade rolled her eyes at dumping that responsibility onto her. However, it was probably for the best to leave the explanation to her and he would be tongue tied when it came to his little girl.

The handsome young man thumbed over his shoulder and informed his wife, "Hey, Grace just showed up and basically asked Ian out, so I'm going to take them out for a few hours. They need a chauffeur and I volunteered. I guess they deserve a little time out since they do have school Monday."

The musician licked her bottom lip while grinning. "You just didn't want Ian taking your car."

"He's almost fifteen; he still doesn't have his license and… I don't want him to dent it up. I love that car."

Jade licked her lips and knowingly smirk about his exaggeration about his feelings for the car. The vehicle had a lot of sentimental value, but he would give it up in a moment for any of them. "Okay, I guess it's a lady's afternoon in." She looked to her daughter and asked, "Do you want to see what Mommy's wearing to her awards show tomorrow night?"

Sapphire eagerly nodded, always enjoying the time with her mother when she showed off a new dress for an event or outfit/costume for her musical performances or acting as they were pretty to look at and it was an excuse for them to basically play dress up.

Freddie picked up his daughter and kissed her forehead. He happily told her, "I love and I'll see you before dinner. You have fun with your mommy."

"Okay daddy," she answered and placing a peck on his cheek.

He lowered her to the floor and waved to his lovely wife then turned to head downstairs.

After reaching the first floor, he cut through the living room to round back to the kitchen to pick up his car keys. While Freddie made his way towards the garage, he walked past the family portrait, the same one that he had saw seven years ago, not paying it much mind even though it had a significant change than when his past-self saw the photo. It was basically the same portrait of their extended family that Freddie had seen during his time jump except that Shay and Ruby were standing side-by-side with a little boy that resembled them and the same age as Sapphire and Spencer's son standing in front of the eldest couple.

* * *

Author's Note: I hope this wrapped the story up in a nice little bow for you. Whether my previous Valentine's story takes place two days later is up to you. As you can see, time can be fluid. Thanks to everyone for reading and reviewing.  
Casting notes: Jack Griffo as Ian West, Dove Cameron as Grace


End file.
